All of Me
by hawkerin
Summary: The Doctor has finally given up fighting his feelings for Rose Tyler and their relationship has progressed to the point where he wants to created a telepathic bond between them. In order to forge that connection, she needs to spend some time with all of his past incarnations.
1. Chapter 1

**Note: This story hasn't been beta-ed... my apologies for any mistakes that I missed. And sorry if it's just fluffy nonsense, and smut... there was no one to hold me back.**

The Doctor awoke slowly, the pleasant warmth of Rose snuggled into his side making his mind a bit sluggish. He pulled her closer and she sighed in her sleep. He breathed in the scent of her while thinking about the events that had changed their relationship so much. The revelations had been frightening at the time, but they both quickly accepted the gift they'd been given. It had been a few months now since they'd fought the werewolf in Scotland. Rose had been worried about something the monster had said and she came to talk to him in the library that night when she couldn't sleep.

"_Doctor, can I ask you something?" she questioned hesitantly as she crossed the floor to the sofa by the fireplace._

"_What are you doing up? I thought you'd gone to bed hours ago," he wondered. The Doctor noted that she was still wearing her pyjamas, but she looked like she hadn't slept a wink._

"_Do you remember, before you changed, there were those words following us? I figured it was a message that I could get back to you, yeah? But the werewolf said something to me. Said there was something of the wolf about me, that I'd seen it too, and I burned like the sun. Are the Bad Wolf messages still following us? I hadn't seen them anymore, but I don't really understand how they got there at all," Rose told him._

_The Doctor looked at her worriedly. The words had stopped, but she had certainly burned like the sun in that incredible moment. It was odd that the lupine wavelength haemovariform could see some remnant of it in her though. Had he not gotten it all out of her?_

"_What do you remember from when you came back to me, Rose? Right before I changed," he prompted._

"_I tried to open the console, like that Slitheen lady did," she replied, playing with her earring nervously. "I knew that the TARDIS granted her wish to start over by reading her mind and I needed the TARDIS to help me get back and save you. But it wouldn't just open, so we hooked a chain up to it and mum borrowed this tow truck from someone who owed her a favour." _

_Rose trailed off, looking away, worried that he'd be angry with her for being so rough with his precious ship._

"_And after that?"_

"_Just a bright light and singing, until I woke up and you started rambling about having two heads," she admitted._

_He sighed as he considered exactly how to explain what she had done. _

"_When you opened the Heart of the TARDIS, you absorbed the time vortex and wielded the power like a goddess of time. You brought the TARDIS back to the Game Station, turned all of the Daleks to dust, and you left the Bad Wolf messages for yourself," he explained. "But the vortex was too much for you to handle. It was killing you, so I pulled the energy from you and transferred it back into the TARDIS. That's why I regenerated."_

"_Oh my god. You died because of me!" Rose gasped._

"_No, no, no, Rose. You saved me. The Daleks would have killed me for good, no regenerating. I gave up that regeneration willingly. For you, I'd give them all," he insisted._

"_But, if it killed you just moving it from me back to the TARDIS, how comes it didn't kill me when I had time to do all that other stuff?" she wondered, clearly not sure how to take his admission at giving his life for her._

The Doctor had panicked after that, insisting on running every test he could think of on her, and kicking himself for not having done it immediately after they had stopped the Sycorax invasion. It had revealed that exposure to the time vortex had altered her physically the same way his own people were different for living so near the Untempered Schism on Gallifrey. She now had the same biology as a non-regenerating Gallifreyan. The Time Lords were granted their regeneration energy upon completing their training at the Academy, but the others on Gallifrey were quite similar to humans, but touch telepaths and with a longer single lifetime.

He had apologized profusely, of course, for what saving him had done to her.

"_But Rose, you'll probably live for centuries now! You'll lose everyone you love and it's all my fault," he told her._

"_Doctor, you know I'm supposed to live longer than my mum, yeah? And I won't lose everyone I love, unless I'll lose you too," she replied._

"_But. What?" he whispered, staring at her like he couldn't believe she was real._

"_I - I love you, Doctor. And if it means that you won't be alone, then I'm glad that I changed."_

That was all it took before he was snogging her senseless. It had taken him a while to assure her that he wasn't only giving in because of her extended lifetime now, but because he had been so convinced that she couldn't possibly feel the same. He had been so sure that she couldn't possibly love a monster like him and he would never be worthy of her. Their relationship had progressed so much since then. It was a bit awkward when they ran into Sarah Jane, but the two ended up as friends by the end of the adventure. Mickey had wanted a way to prove that he was useful too, but after catching the Doctor and Rose making out in a supply closet at the school, he didn't want to be anywhere on the ship with them and walk in on something worse.

Now, they shared a bedroom and he even connected with her telepathically quite often while they were intimate. It was that connection that he craved more than anything and brought him to the decision that today would be the day that he would finally ask Rose to start the process of creating a Bond with him.

Rose hummed happily and turned in his arms as she woke up. He smiled at her messy hair and the flush on her cheeks, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"Mornin' handsome," she mumbled with a smile.

"Good morning, love. Did you sleep well?" he asked.

"Always do, with you around," she replied.

"That's good to hear. Shall I go make some breakfast while you get ready for the day?" the Doctor suggested.

"What am I getting ready for? You got plans for where we're heading next?" she wondered.

"I may. You might want to dress for warm and sunny," he told her and with a quick kiss, left her to her morning ablutions.

He would need to explain the whole thing, he knew. That's why he wanted to spend the day on an uninhabited planet, picnicking on the beach while they discussed it. They could still have a human wedding afterwards as well; Jackie would insist on it, he was sure. But it was important that they do this first. The process of creating a Bond took a while, and there was the possibility that they wouldn't complete it. No sense in a wedding if that happened. But he was confident that everything would be fine. He had to be, or he was just setting himself up for heartsbreak even asking her.

"The eggs are burning," Rose said, startling him from his thoughts.

"Oh! Sorry," he exclaimed, turning off the heat and moving their only slightly overdone eggs to the plates that already had toast and bacon ready.

"Penny for 'em," she said as they sat eating in silence for a few minutes.

The Doctor blinked, suddenly realizing that he had been lost in thoughts of how to ask her again, instead of focusing on the lovely woman right in front of him.

"Sorry, just planning our day," he told her.

"Tricky. Plans generally fall apart for us as soon as we try," she teased.

"Not this time. I've already landed the TARDIS where I want us to be, and checked. I've got a cooler full of food for the day and there's a bag of essentials for the beach already packed in the console room," he informed her with a smile.

She squealed happily and jumped up to give him a hug before quickly finishing her breakfast and putting the dishes into the dishwasher. He chuckled at her enthusiasm and followed her just a bit more slowly, finding her already standing just outside the open doors when he got there.

They both changed into swimsuits and spent a few hours splashing in the waves before settling down on the large blanket the Doctor had set out for their picnic. He waited until they'd almost finished eating before broaching the subject that had been spinning in his brain all day.

"Rose, I- I need to ask you something," he began.

"What is it, Doctor? It's like you've been miles away, all morning," she said.

"Just nervous about this, I suppose. There's this, this thing that Time Lords did. Well, not many of the Time Lords, but the Gallifreyans still did it fairly often. Time Lords thought they were too important for things like love and just had political alliances more often than not," he rambled.

"Doctor!" she interrupted. "You wanted to ask me something?"

"Right! Yes. Less history lesson, more asking, blimey," he stuttered. "So, this thing is, well, it's a telepathic connection between two people who love each other."

"Like we do sometimes?"

"Sort of, but it can be deeper, and well, permanent. If you want to, that is. You don't have to say yes, but," he told her quickly, clearly about to start rambling nervously again.

"Is it," she began, cutting him off and getting his attention so he was looking at her. "Is it like getting married, Doctor?"

"Yeah," he whispered.

"And you want to?"

"I'd like nothing more in all my lives, Rose Tyler."

"Then tell me what I need to do," she said with a knowing smile.

He explained that she would need to spend a few days or weeks with each of his previous incarnations, getting to know each of them, and connecting herself to his timeline through his whole life to create this Bond. She was a bit nervous and truth be told, so was he, but the previous Doctors would know what this was all about and accept that it was what he wanted in the future.

"I'll miss you," she told him as she packed a case for herself.

"I'll be with you the whole time, Rose. Just not _this_ me."

"Yeah, but will you be alone while I'm gone?"

"Not for as long as it will be for you. I'll have to wait a bit for the signal from each of them to pick you up and bring you to the next one, but it won't be more than a day or two with each of them for me," he assured her.

"Alright, Doctor. I think I'm ready," she said, zipping up the bigger on the inside suitcase that held a variety of her clothes. She would still have access to the wardrobe room on the TARDIS of course, but these were her favourites and she didn't want to be without them for that long.

"I love you so much, Rose. Thank you," he said and kissed her soundly. He would miss her, of course, but he would also gain the memories of time spent with her throughout his lives and would treasure those greatly. It would be worth it in the end, because he would be Bonded to her and never have to be alone again.


	2. Chapter 2

Rose and the Doctor stepped out of their TARDIS and walked, hand in hand, over to the similar looking TARDIS that was currently parked in what looked like a junkyard. The Doctor knocked on the door, trying to be as polite as possible. He knew that his first incarnation could be a bit grumpy at times and didn't want to start this off on the wrong foot.

The elderly looking, white haired gentleman opened the door and looked at the couple appraisingly. "Yes, what do you want?" he asked.

"Hello, Doctor. I am your tenth incarnation, and have come to introduce you to Rose Marion Tyler," he said formally, the phrasing making his intentions clear.

"Indeed," he responded, his eyebrows raised in surprise. He moved to invite them inside and Rose felt that he was looking at her more closely than anyone ever had before.

"I'm sure you know what this is about," the Doctor in pinstripes prompted.

"You wish to create a Bond with this young lady. She is not a Time Lord. Gallifreyan perhaps?" the first Doctor questioned.

He smirked as he gave Rose's hand a supportive squeeze. "Bit more complicated than that, I'm afraid. Rose is human, but biologically similar to a Gallifreyan now. You'll have plenty of time to talk all about it," he told his younger self, then turned to Rose. "You'll meet my granddaughter, Susan later. Take your time, and when you're ready, he will contact me and I'll take you to meet the next one."

Rose nodded, still a bit nervous to say anything. He cupped her face tenderly and gave her a sweet kiss before heading back out the door to his own TARDIS.

"Would you care for a cup of tea, my dear?" the remaining Doctor suggested.

"Yeah, alright. Is there somewhere I can put my bag?" she responded.

"Certainly, Rose," he said and took the case from her.

She took the opportunity to get a good look at this version of the Doctor as they walked down the hall. He appeared much older than either of her Doctors, but knew that was far from the truth. This was the youngest that she would likely ever meet him. He was fairly tall and slim, like her current version, but his hair was white and receding, his face wrinkled, but in a handsome, distinguished way.

He placed the suitcase in the bedroom next to his own, telling her that she could stay there during her visit, before leading the way to the kitchen and making tea. Rose looked through the cupboards for some biscuits and set out a plateful for them to share.

"Not really sure what to say," Rose told him nervously.

"Well, as a human, this process would be quite unusual for you. The purpose is for us to learn about each other. Susan and I came to Earth after we fled Gallifrey. She didn't want to fulfill the roles they were imposing on her, so I stole the TARDIS and hid her away from the rest of the Time Lords," he explained.

"Where is Susan right now?"

"She has been attending the human school. She appears to be the same age as them and decided that she could learn more by immersing herself in their culture," he said, smiling fondly.

"Probably doing better than me. I never finished high school," Rose admitted. She worried suddenly then, that maybe she was ruining everything. Wasn't she supposed to be proving herself to him? That was the point of this, right? For her to make every version of him fall in love with her? She'd never manage it if she told him she was some stupid drop out!

"I mean, I've done lots of studying since then, yeah? Learned lots from you and travelling to different planets and things," she added quickly.

The Doctor smiled at her. "Quite right. Susan didn't need to attend the Academy to be brilliant and you can learn far more from studying the universe up close than just learning theories," he agreed.

Rose relaxed slightly, but knew she'd need to be more careful in the future or she might have him calling the future Doctor back here to take her away without wanting to complete the Bond with her.

"Would you care to go to the library while we wait for Susan to return for the evening?" he suggested.

"Will you read to me? Always like when you do that," she told him.

"A splendid idea. Perhaps Charles Dickens?"

"Brilliant! You and I met him, you know. And there were ghosts, at Christmas!" she said, telling him the whole story excitedly.

He read to her for hours. They had started off just sitting on the sofa together, but fairly quickly, Rose had ended up in her usual position with her head resting on his shoulder and their hands twined together. The Doctor was a bit surprised by it, but didn't discourage the cuddling that she initiated.

"Grandfather! I'm back," Susan called to him.

"I'm in the library, Susan," he announced as Rose disentangled herself from his side. She decided that it might be best for her to be a bit more presentable when meeting his family. She got the impression that 'proper Time Lords' didn't cuddle, or likely even kiss each other.

"Oh! We have company," she said as she entered the library. "I'm Susan, and you are?"

"Rose Tyler. It's a pleasure to meet you, Susan," she replied, leaving it to the Doctor to explain why she was there.

"Rose will be with us for some time. She is visiting from my personal future to establish a Bond with me," he told the young brunette who was looking at her curiously.

"Really? But that's wonderful! Oh grandfather, I'm going to make something extra special for dinner," Susan exclaimed.

"I really don't want to be any trouble," Rose protested.

"Nonsense. It's no trouble and this is something to celebrate. Grandfather, I'm so happy for you," she insisted and bounced off toward the kitchen.

"Should I go help her, do you think?" Rose asked.

"You may, if you wish. It would be a chance to get to know her better," the Doctor replied.

"Yeah. That would be nice. She's important to you and I'm here to learn more about you. Best get to know her as well," Rose decided and squeezed his hand before following.

Over the next couple of days, Rose and Susan got along splendidly. Rose learned that the Doctor's first marriage was a political alliance between the houses with promises to loom children, but the agreement was dissolved shortly after those obligations had been fulfilled. She had been worried about what his granddaughter would think about her becoming her step grandmother, but some of the Time Lords they were hiding from were her own parents and grandmother. Susan was also a bit of a romantic and thought the idea of a Bond was fantastic.

The three of them went sight seeing through London. While Rose knew the city well in her own time, things were a bit different in the sixties. Rose found some more time appropriate clothes in the TARDIS wardrobe, saving her own clothes for when she stayed on the ship.

It was on one of their walks through the city when Rose noticed something unusual. There was odd shouting from a nearby alley and she carefully made her way over to investigate while the Doctor and Susan were looking at nicknacks in a nearby shop. The men that were shouting, were tossing items from the back door of a shop into the back of a truck. It was immediately obvious to Rose that they were not human and something bad was going on.

"Rose! There you are," Susan called to her as she approached.

Rose quickly shushed the young girl and looked toward the Doctor, who was headed their way as well.

"They're not human. Who are they, Doctor? Looks like they're robbing that place," Rose told them.

"I've no idea. We cannot interfere. It would violate the laws of time, we are merely observers in our travels," he insisted.

Rose looked at him like he had grown a second head. Not interfere? He must be joking.

"What are you on about? Someone could be hurt," Rose said, pulling out her mobile to snap a photo of the plates on the truck before they drove off. The minute the truck had left, Rose ran towards the door they had gotten all of the boxes from.

"Wait! What are you doing?" the Doctor shouted after her.

Susan followed her, keeping up better than the Doctor could for the moment. While she had enjoyed his company, Rose missed running with her Doctor. The steel door was open a bit, clearly having been damaged when the aliens had broken in. Inside, Rose found two men, tied up and gagged on the floor. She ran to check on them instantly, removing the gags and asking if they were alright.

"Who were they? They looked so strange and spoke some weird language," they rambled. The men were clearly in shock, but didn't seem to need medical attention.

"We'd best leave this to the local authorities, Rose," the Doctor told her, having caught up with them.

"But Doctor, they weren't human," she hissed at him quietly, so the men wouldn't hear.

"We cannot interfere," he insisted.

Rose glared at him and wrote down the numbers and description from the photo she had taken of the truck for the men to give to the police. It went against every instinct Rose had to leave this alone, but no one had been hurt so far as she could see, so she huffed angrily and marched back to the TARDIS without looking at the Doctor once on the way. She could hear Susan arguing with him behind her, but they seemed to be speaking in Gallifreyan because the TARDIS didn't translate.

Upon reaching the ship, Rose locked herself in her room and drew a hot bath. She needed time to think and relax before confronting the Doctor about his behaviour. As she soaked in the steaming water, Rose tried to consider what was going on. This Doctor had just left Gallifrey. He hadn't even taken any companions with him yet, other than Susan, and it seemed that his people had rules about interfering when they travelled through space and time. What had prompted him to change that attitude, she wondered. Rose had to remember that this Doctor's experiences were very different to those of the Doctors she had known so far. She didn't want to make him angry with her, but she had to make him see that he couldn't just leave when people needed help.

After dressing in her pyjamas, Rose found the Doctor sulking in the library. He jumped up when he saw her and quickly ushered her to sit on the sofa with him.

"Rose! I'm so sorry for my behaviour earlier. I've upset you and that is inexcusable. Those were humans and you are human and you just wanted to help if they might be hurt. I shouldn't have forced my people's rules on you," he babbled, seemingly desperate to fix whatever had come between them, but from the sounds of it, he still didn't understand.

"Doctor, stop for a minute, yeah?" he nodded and waited for her to respond to his apology. Rose sighed as she tried to think of the best way to explain her feelings. "It's not just about them being human, ok? I know things are different for you right now, but what you and I do in your future, is help people. Everywhere we go, anyone who is being hurt or whatever, we help them. I can't just let things like that go, Doctor. You taught me a better way of living. You taught me to make a stand and do something when everyone else runs away. It's just one of the things I love about our life together."

"I don't understand, Rose. Time Lords are trained from the very beginning that it is our duty to maintain the web of time. Part of that is to be sure that we never interfere with events that we witness. We are only to observe. The results could be disastrous!" he argued.

"Look. I know that there are some things that we can't change, fixed events and people that have to do certain things for the universe to keep going the way it's s'posed to, but you can see what can be changed and what can't. You've got those fancy time senses that let you know where we can help and when we have to let things be," she insisted.

"It isn't the way we are supposed to act, but I will consider what you've said. And I am sorry for what happened. Will you sit with me?" he asked hopefully.

Rose sighed and snuggled into his side as he continued reading the story aloud to her that they'd started earlier.

Rose had been with this Doctor for five days and the next morning, he suggested that it was time for her to go on and meet the next version of him. She decided that he must have felt that their argument was more than he wanted to deal with. He flicked a few switches on the console, then approached her.

"I need to connect with you telepathically, Rose, do you consent?" he asked, holding his hands over her temples but not touching her until she nodded and closed her eyes.

His touch was soft and she felt him sifting lightly through her surface thoughts before touching a spot in her mind that she hadn't felt before. She presumed this must be some way of alerting his future self that she was ready. Rose didn't know how that would work, but didn't question him about it. She went to collect her suitcase from her room and by the time she got back to the console room, her pinstriped Doctor was waiting for her.

Rose hugged Susan goodbye and gave the first Doctor a kiss on the cheek, thanking him for spending this time with her. Then she was back in her familiar console room of coral and metal, on the way to meet the next Doctor.


	3. Chapter 3

"Did I do alright, Doctor?" Rose asked as he piloted the ship to meet up with his next incarnation.

"What? Of course, love, everything is perfect. Why would you even need to ask that?"

"Well, we had that disagreement. Thought maybe I mucked things up," she admitted.

"Rose," he began, moving to stand in front of her and took her hands in his. "You won't muck anything up. Admittedly, I can't remember everything that happened just yet, not until you get through all the rest of them and back to me. The memories are blocked, but it all went the way it was supposed to. Our bond is starting to form, and I missed you terribly, so I'd really like to keep moving with this so that we can be back together and tell your mother that we're getting married and all of the lovely things that go along with that."

"Ok, Doctor. Take me to meet the next you," she said with a smile. She still wasn't entirely sure that she hadn't messed things up and the fact that he couldn't remember what had happened didn't help matters any. But she had to keep going, because as hard as this was, it was for him and he was worth it.

They exited the TARDIS, once again hand in hand, and knocked on the door of the other time machine that was waiting for them. The door was opened by a young man in a kilt. The Doctor's face lit up at the sight of him.

"Jamie!" he shouted happily, surprising the young man in front of him.

"Aye. Who are you?"

"Jamie, who is it?" asked a voice from inside the ship.

"No idea, Doctor," he replied and moved aside so that the Time Lord could see for himself.

The man peering at them curiously was quite a bit shorter than the previous Doctor. He wore an ill-fitting, black suit jacket, checked trousers, and a large bow tie. His hair was dark, short, and very thick, reminding Rose of one of the Beatles.

"Hello, Doctor. I am your tenth incarnation, and have come to introduce you to Rose Marion Tyler," he announced, using the same phrasing that he had the first time.

At the introduction, the shorter Doctor blinked and stared into the distance for a moment, as if deep in thought. Suddenly, he seemed to remember her and turned to Rose with a bright smile. "Rose! It's wonderful you're here!" he said, suddenly pulling her into the ship and hugged her tightly.

"It's good to see you too, Doctor," she answered, pleased that he didn't seem upset to see her again after what had happened the last time.

"You know them, Doctor?" Jamie questioned, feeling uneasy at his friend's odd behaviour a moment ago.

"Yes, Jamie. Nothing to worry about. Rose will be visiting for several days. I haven't seen her in quite some time, so we'll need to do some catching up. Not to worry, old chap, she's in good hands," the younger Doctor said.

"Of course, I'll see you soon, love," the older Doctor said, giving her another sweet kiss before leaving for his own TARDIS.

"I'll bring your suitcase to your room, Rose. Back in a jiffy," the Doctor said, taking her bag and dashing down the hallway.

"I'm Rose, Rose Tyler. The Doctor called you Jamie?"

"Aye. Jamie McCrimmon. How do you know the Doctor, then?" he asked.

"Well, it's a bit complicated. You see, the man that just left," Rose began but was interrupted by the Doctor's return.

"No need to worry about any of that, Jamie. Rose is a very dear friend and I daresay that you and Victoria will get a nice little vacation while she's here. No need to go running off into trouble for a few days, eh?"

"With me around, you think we won't find any trouble?" Rose interjected.

"What?" the Doctor questioned.

"Doctor, your favourite nickname for me is, Jeopardy Friendly," she informed him.

"Oh, well. We can just stay here. No need to go looking for trouble," he assured them.

"But Doctor, we've been here for days now. I know you wanted to take a rest after dealing with the Great Intelligence, but this place is dull," Jamie argued.

"We'll see, Jamie," the Doctor replied, as Rose hid a giggle behind her hand. "Now, Rose and I have a few things to discuss, so we'll see you a little bit later."

The Doctor tugged Rose by the hand toward the library and closed the door to give them some privacy. Rose sat on the sofa, by the fireplace, presuming that he would now tell her just how much she had messed everything up the last time and she might as well give up on this whole thing.

"You don't want them to know why I'm here?" she questioned.

"The explanations are needlessly complicated, and the creation of a Bond is quite personal really. So it isn't any of their business," he told her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was like that, Doctor. I'll try not to talk about it with them, then," she said, a bit embarrassed that she hadn't realized that this was a personal matter. He had told Susan openly, but then, she was family as well as someone from his culture that would understand.

"What's wrong, Rose?" he asked. "You seem upset."

"Well, I just figured that you were gonna tell me you were still angry about what happened the last time," she explained.

"Oh my word, no! Of course not. Rose, the last time we met, I had barely begun to understand what the universe is like. Travelling with human companions has taught me a great deal about not just existing, but being an active citizen of the universe. You were absolutely right about needing to make a stand and help people. I had no idea at the time and you should never question your compassion and your morals, even when I'm being an ignorant fool," he assured her. He cupped her cheek in his hand and smiled at her. "You are brilliant."

"Thank you, Doctor," she replied, blushing. "So, you want to tell me a bit about your friends? Jamie seems nice. You used his name once when we ended up in Scotland not too long ago."

"Really? Yes, I rather like Jamie. I met him in the Highlands in 1746. What did you and I do in Scotland, I wonder?"

"We saved Queen Victoria from a werewolf," she told him, not surprised to see his jaw drop a bit in shock.

"Oh my giddy aunt," he mumbled, prompting a laugh from Rose.

"Well, what about your Victoria? What's she like?" Rose asked.

"I met her in 1866. Her father had been experimenting with time travel and ended up attracting some rather unwanted attention as a result. When he was killed, he asked me to take care of her for him. Lovely young lady, I'm sure the two of you will get along marvellously," he answered. "Now, what would you like to do during your visit with me this time? I'm afraid there isn't a city outside at the moment to go and explore the way we did last time."

"Jamie said they were bored. How about you take us somewhere impressive?" she suggested with a twinkle in her eye. Her Doctors always liked to show off the most beautiful places they knew, just to see her reaction.

"Are you sure, Rose? I'd hate for us to end up somewhere dangerous and risk your safety," he said.

"Life with you, Doctor, isn't always safe, but it's never boring," she told him with a teasing smile.

"Oh alright, impressive you say? Now let me think on that."

The Doctor ended up choosing one of the early Earth Colonies, known as New Scotland. It was absolutely beautiful, and did in fact remind them all quite a bit of the original Scotland. But, as usual, trouble found them. An infestation of giant, tunnelling worms nearly had the city collapsing into the ground. If Victoria hadn't stumbled into the queen's nest, they might never have stopped them. Rose and Jamie were covered in goo from fighting off the larva, but the Doctor managed to rig the city's transmat system to move the lot of them across the sea to an uninhabited island, where they wouldn't bother the colonists for the time being.

"Time for a shower. I need to get this slime off of me," Rose announced as they re-entered the time ship.

"Aye, sounds like a great idea," Jamie agreed.

"Fine, fine. Then, I think, Rose and I will be having dinner together. Can the two of you manage without us for a few hours?" the Doctor asked.

"Not a problem," Victoria replied as everyone headed off to clean up.

Rose wondered as she made her way to her room, was this a date? He didn't exactly ask her, but he was clearly planning for them to have dinner in private. Should she ask him what to wear? The whole idea of going on a date with your fiancé before he really knew you was a bit odd, but she tried to just go along with it all. Maybe this was normal for this bonding process thing?

When she got out of the shower, there was a beautiful dress laid out on her bed. She gasped as she took in the sparkling stones that embellished the golden gown. Clearly, this was intended to be a bit of a fancy date. It was unexpected, since nothing like that happened during her time with the first Doctor. Maybe she was doing a better job at impressing this one.

Dressed in the beautiful gown and some matching heels she'd found in her closet, Rose made her way to the console room. She had put her hair half up and left the rest down in curls.

"Even more lovely than I'd imagined," the Doctor said, surprising her as she hadn't seen him on the other side of the console.

He was wearing a black suit, looking a bit more formal than he had with the checked trousers he was wearing earlier. He held out his arm for her and she happily threaded her own through his, feeling quite posh.

"Now, you asked for impressive, my dear. I think this just might fit the bill," he told her as he opened the doors out into an enormous, opulently decorated room.

Rose couldn't believe her eyes as she took in the sparkling decor around them. There were dozens of other couples, similarly dressed, and a string ensemble in the corner playing soft music. The Doctor led her over to where the maître d' was waiting and informed him of their reservation. They were led to a quiet table in the corner where the Doctor helped push in her chair before sitting across from her.

"Doctor, this is amazing," she whispered in awe.

"My apologies for not doing something similar during your last visit with me. I was unaware of human customs at the time, but I'm happy to have managed to make a better impression this time," he said with a smile.

"I never expected," she said but trailed off as she looked out the nearby window. The sky was awash with a beautiful, purple nebula, and the occasional shooting stars. "Wow."

The Doctor ordered for them, since Rose was unfamiliar with the food. She couldn't seem to stop staring, everything around them was so beautiful.

"I take it from your reactions, that I've never brought you here before," he said, a bit smugly.

"Doctor, you've never taken me out on a real date before. Closest we manage is going out for chips or having a private picnic somewhere. This is incredible!" she responded.

"Duly noted. I will remember to take you to the most beautiful places on dates, as you say, as often as possible. If only to see you looking so lovely, my dear."

Rose was a bit surprised by his behaviour. It was like he was trying to win her over instead of the other way around. She didn't quite understand why though. Maybe it was a bit of a test to see if she could hold her own with all these fancy people?

When their food arrived, he explained what all the different dishes were, and they shared a bit of everything. Rose enjoyed most of it, though there was a mushy vegetable that was quite bitter and a bit slimy, so she left that one alone. After dessert, the Doctor led her over to the dance floor and held her respectfully as they waltzed together. The whole thing just felt too perfect to be real.

"Thank you, Doctor. You didn't have to do all that for me," Rose told him when they returned to the TARDIS.

"Of course I did, Rose. That's precisely why you're here," he told her. "Now, get some sleep and we'll see what kind of trouble we can get into tomorrow. Goodnight." He pressed a kiss to the back of her hand when they reached her bedroom door and quickly ushered her inside.

Rose felt like she might be missing something important. How was that why she was here? Wasn't she supposed to be convincing him to Bond with her? She didn't know this version of the Doctor, so maybe this was just the type of thing that he liked to do, but she didn't think so. After scrubbing her face of makeup and hanging the beautiful dress back in the closet in her room, Rose snuggled into bed and dreamt of her pinstriped Doctor waltzing with her the way this one had.

The next few days turned out to be rather uneventful. The TARDIS was being stubborn and refused to move for the time being, so the Doctor and Rose spent most of their time with him reading to her in the library. Jamie and Victoria went shopping on the planet where the Doctor had taken Rose on their date, the markets proving to be quite interesting.

When they'd had enough of all that, the Doctor suggested that it might be time for her to move on to his next incarnation. Perhaps the TARDIS was just waiting to take her regular inhabitants on their next adventure.

"You're probably right. I'll miss this version of you though. You've been so sweet to me," she said, ruffling his mop of dark hair.

"Though I won't remember this until meeting you again, I'm sure my hearts shall miss you as well, Rose," he told her, while flicking a few switches on the console.

He approached her then and placed his hands next to her temples, looking into her eyes for permission. Rose nodded and closed her eyes. Once again, she felt him sifting lightly through her mind before touching that same spot. Whatever he did, felt a bit stronger this time. Maybe it was because they were getting closer to her Doctor in his timeline or something.

In a matter of minutes, there was a knock on the door and Rose was back in her usual TARDIS again.


	4. Chapter 4

"I'll have to find that dress again in the wardrobe room," Rose commented as the Doctor piloted them to their next destination.

"Dress?" he asked.

"Right, you don't remember any of it yet," she smirked. "But it seems you can be quite impressive when you put your mind to it," Rose teased, sticking her tongue between her teeth.

"Impressive? What, him?! I'm always impressive, Rose Tyler!" he protested, pulling the last lever rather abruptly and landing them with enough of a jostle to have Rose tumbling into his arms.

"I know," she whispered, her face just inches away from his.

The Doctor smiled at her softly before leaning in for a kiss. He really was missing her while she was away with his previous selves, but he could already feel the connections that had been made between them. The light tug of the beginnings of their Bond were making him giddy and he couldn't wait for it to be complete.

"Come on, Rose! The third Doctor awaits, he just doesn't know it yet," he said with a wink.

Rose noticed that the building they were entering had signs marked UNIT. The Doctor used his psychic paper to get them passed security and they were escorted to a lab. Inside, Rose could see the TARDIS parked in the corner and a tall, white haired gentleman in a red velvet suit was working on some kind of experiment.

"Excuse the intrusion, Doctor," the younger looking, but quite a bit older Doctor said.

"Hmm? Yes? How can I help you?" the other Doctor asked as he turned to see them.

"Hello, Doctor. I am your tenth incarnation, and have come to introduce you to Rose Marion Tyler," he said with a knowing smile.

The velvet clad Doctor blinked in confusion for a moment as his memories of their previous encounters unlocked. As soon as he recognized her, the third Doctor pulled Rose into a spinning hug, making her giggle.

"Well, I'll be off then. You might want to get her a security pass and come up with some excuse for the Brig as to who she is," the pinstriped Doctor suggested.

"Quite right. Perhaps a graduate student here to study with me? Or maybe visiting family, I wouldn't want them to think I was behaving inappropriately by having you stay with me in the TARDIS," he decided.

"I couldn't possibly sleep anywhere else," Rose agreed.

"I'll see you soon, love," the future Doctor said, giving her a kiss before he headed back to his own TARDIS.

"Would you like some tea, my dear?" the remaining, ruffle shirted Doctor offered.

"I'd love some, but should you get that security stuff worked out first?" she asked.

"Oh, no rush. We can discuss exactly how we'll introduce you in the meantime," he replied, taking her arm and leading her into the ship.

Once they were settled in the library, the Doctor asked, "Has this been difficult for you, Rose?"

"A bit, yeah. I mean you're here, but I miss you anyway. And I'm so worried that I might say the wrong thing or something, you know?" she admitted.

"You miss the aspects of my personality that haven't developed yet," he said.

"What?"

"Rose, every version of me is not only a new person, it is a progression building upon the one that came before. In me, there are aspects of both of the Doctors that came before me. I'm very glad that you still see me as the Doctor, despite the fact that my personality may be lacking a significant amount of the traits you are used to," he explained.

"I s'pose. It's a bit of that, but there's more to it. I mean, I've travelled with your for a few years now and we know each other. While I know you're the Doctor, we can't joke around and stuff the way we usually do because we don't know each other as well."

"All part of getting to know each other through this process as well, Rose," he said with a smile. "Now, would you prefer that I introduce you as a cousin or shall we be honest and call you my betrothed?"

Rose's heart skipped a beat at him saying that. Sure, she'd considered them engaged ever since her Doctor had asked her to do this, but she wasn't sure how the past Doctors thought of her. She hadn't really passed the test yet with all of this. At her blush, the Doctor smiled.

"I think I can guess what you'd prefer. I'll be sure to tell them that they're not to mention you again, however, not even to me."

"But Doctor, you didn't want Jamie or Victoria to know what I was doing here before. Why are you ok with it now?" she wondered.

"It isn't that I'm embarrassed about you, if that's what you're thinking, Rose. It's simply that the discussion of the Bonding process is personal. Jamie saw you kissing my future self and it would have taken a lot of explaining for him to understand just why you were there, given that. In this case, I can insist that it be kept a secret for your own safety and the Brigadier will take that very seriously. He likely won't even tell Jo if I tell him not to," he explained.

"Who's Jo?"

"Ah, she's my assistant here at UNIT. Do you know why I'm here?" he asked. Rose shook her head and he told her, "The Time Lords are upset with me for breaking the rules. You can guess which ones."

"The same ones you were scolding me about when I met the first you?" she guessed.

"Quite right. For the crime of interfering, I was forced to regenerate and stranded here on Earth with a broken TARDIS until they feel that I've learned my lesson."

"They killed you! That's horrible!" she gasped.

"On a planet where they can give away more regenerations at will, it's a fairly common punishment, I'm afraid. So, given my preference for this planet, they decided that I should spend my exile here. I'd met the Brigadier before and he was happy to keep me around to help. It's given me a place to stay and kept me busy while I'm here. I'm helping UNIT with research and stopping any alien influences from harming the planet. I had a scientist named Liz helping me before, but she felt that I didn't really need her around and would be better off with someone to simply fetch and carry. Jo does more than that, of course, but she certainly isn't a scientist," he told her.

"Neither am I. Though I suppose that explains why Sarah Jane called me your assistant when we met," Rose said.

She didn't see any recognition in him at the mention of Sarah Jane, so she presumed that he hadn't met her yet. Rose hadn't thought to ask when in the Doctor's life they knew each other. Although, she did say they travelled and at the moment, the Doctor was stuck here.

"What were you working on when I got here? Looked important," Rose asked.

"Oh, just testing the resistance on a new armour plating for UNIT against different chemicals that it might encounter. It can wait," he said. "I'm afraid we can't travel in the TARDIS right now, but perhaps we could go walking through London again? Exploring as it were?"

"I'd like that Doctor. When are we now? Have I been born yet?" she wondered.

"It is currently 1972."

"Right, bit before my time yet. I was born in 1986. Always interesting to see what things are different, yeah?" she said, looking on the bright side of being stuck in London for a bit.

"And we're bound to find some trouble with you around, Miss Jeopardy Friendly," he teased.

The Doctor informed the Brigadier of who Rose was and that she would be staying for several days. He agreed to keep the nature of their relationship a secret for her safety and assured the Doctor that she would be given the same clearance as him along with the officers keeping an eye out for her protection. Rose certainly didn't feel that was necessary, but simply rolled her eyes when both men insisted.

Jo wasn't sure what to make of Rose's presence since she was only told that Rose was a relative, staying with the Doctor for a while. In fact, they went so far as to give Jo a bit of a vacation while Rose was there.

"I'm not trying to push your companions away, Doctor," Rose insisted when she found out.

"You aren't doing anything of the sort. While she's assisting me, Jo doesn't get much of a break. She won't be needed while you're here and would only ask uncomfortable questions. Besides, I'm not sure she could be counted on not to keep asking those questions after you'd gone and I didn't remember anymore," he assured her.

"Alright, I won't argue. Rather have you all to myself anyway," she teased. "Have you figured out how we're going to spend our time yet?"

"I have a few ideas. For today, how about a walk and some chips?" he suggested, seemingly eager to give her something familiar to ease her homesickness.

Over the next few days, Rose helped the Doctor with a few of his experiments, they went to the park for a picnic, and he even took her on another date. This time, they couldn't visit another planet, but he did have her dress formally to go to the opera with him, where he explained all about the history of Mozart's life and the story being depicted. The TARDIS did translate the singing for her, but it could still be hard to follow a bit of what was happening.

When they got back to the TARDIS that night, rather than take her back to her room, he showed her a large ballroom that the ship had created for them. After starting some music playing, he spun her around the room, teaching her a few formal dances from Earth as well as some from other planets. They were both laughing as they tripped over each other at 2 a.m. and Rose began to yawn.

"Right, young lady, off to bed with you," he said.

"Are you going to tuck me in?" she laughed.

The Doctor looked a bit confused. "Isn't that something that is done for human children?"

"Well, you did call me 'young lady,' sounds like you think I'm a child," she told him, not really offended.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry. You are so very young by comparison to me, but I never meant-,"

"It's fine, Doctor. I know you didn't mean to talk down to me or anything. I had a really nice time tonight, thank you," she assured him and stood up on her toes to kiss his cheek.

"So did I, Rose. And thank you for spending this time with me," he said with a soft smile.

On one of their walks around London the next day, Rose came across a group of small, blue, fuzzy aliens who were hiding in the bushes so the humans wouldn't panic at the sight of them. They nearly ran when they saw Rose approaching, but she calmed them down quickly with the fact that the TARDIS translated her speech into their language. Their ship had crashed and needed some repairs before they could leave, so she and the Doctor took the damaged parts back to UNIT while the aliens hid inside their ship.

Rose was painting a protective coating on some of the scratched parts, so that they wouldn't break apart as they passed through the atmosphere. When she finished the last one, Rose placed the piece carefully on the nearby paper to dry and went to see if the Doctor needed any help with his repairs.

"Anything I can do to help, Doctor?" she asked.

"Certainly, could you measure the diameter of that piece you were just working on? I need this band to match its circumference exactly or the whole thing will rattle apart," he instructed.

Rose looked at the part he was referring to. She knew that diameters and circumferences had to do with circles, but couldn't remember exactly which part he was asking her to measure. Was the diameter the one that measured from the middle to the edge? Did she need some kind of special ruler for this?

"Rose?" he called when she didn't immediately return with the requested measurement.

"Yeah, um I. Why don't I hold onto that for you while you do it? You said it needs to be really exact right? You can be more precise than I can, yeah?" she suggested.

"If you like," he answered, handing the pieces he was working on to her.

Rose sighed in frustration. Jo could probably help him with this stuff without any trouble and she couldn't even follow a simple instruction. She knew the Doctors that she travelled with would understand and show her or describe it without using complicated labels, but she didn't want this Doctor to think she was stupid. She'd told him in the past that she dropped out of school, but tried to cover it up with saying she'd studied on her own instead. That little lie was coming back to bite her now.

"Rose," he said when he returned, startling her and she almost dropped the parts she was holding.

"Sorry! I was just, um thinking," she told him.

"Is everything alright?" he asked.

"Of course, Doctor. I'll just go wait in the TARDIS until you're finished and we'll bring it all back to the Pirrios, yeah?" Rose answered, fleeing the room to go cry in private.

It was about twenty minutes later that the Doctor came to find her so that they could get the aliens on their way home. She hoped he didn't notice that she had been crying, but he probably did. Rose plastered on a smile as they wished their new friends a safe journey and they walked back to UNIT hand in hand.

"Rose, did I say anything to upset you earlier?" he asked her.

"No. What could you possibly have said that would be upsetting?" she replied. It wasn't his fault she was upset, it was her own. "Everything is fine. Jo's coming back tomorrow, isn't she? I should probably get ready to leave."

"Are you sure? You don't have to leave so soon," the Doctor said.

"Yeah. Like you said, she'll probably ask some uncomfortable questions if I'm still hanging around. And we had a lovely visit, don't you think?" Rose asked, hoping that she hadn't ruined anything this time. She wasn't sure how much longer she could keep this up, but she had to try. The Doctor was worth it.

That evening, Rose was ready to go, the Doctor seemed a bit disappointed that she was leaving, but she took it as a good sign that he would have liked to keep her around. He went to the console and flipped a few switches and dials. She wasn't sure why he would do that when the ship couldn't go anywhere, but she couldn't always explain his behaviour.

The Doctor hesitantly moved his hands by her temples and asked, "Are you sure you're ready?"

"Yes, Doctor. I'll miss this version of you, but it's time," she said, closing her eyes and waiting.

He hesitated for a moment before she felt him place his fingers on her temples and moved through her mind gently to touch that special place in her mind. Again, it felt stronger than before, but very pleasant. When he released her head, she felt him immediately pull her into a hug. It was a bit unexpected, but she happily snuggled into his velvet jacket.

There was a knock on the door, followed quickly by the older Doctor poking his head into the TARDIS.

"Bit of a tight squeeze getting the old girl in here. Best get a move on before anyone tries to open the door to the lab," he said with a wink.

"Thank you, Doctor. I'll see you again soon," Rose said before leaving yet another version of the man she loved.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes: Just a note that there is no War Doctor in this storyline, you've already seen 10 refer to himself as the tenth.**

"Is everything alright, love?" the Doctor asked after getting the ship into the vortex.

"Of course, Doctor. I had a lovely time. He took me to the opera and on a picnic in the park, and we helped some aliens whose ship had crashed," she assured him.

"Really? Can't wait to remember all of that. What kind of aliens crashed on Earth?"

"You called them Pirrios," she replied. "Doctor, it was evening when you picked me up this time. I don't suppose I could sleep here tonight?"

"I wish you could, Rose. I miss you so much. But having you here with me for too long instead of working your way through my timeline would interrupt the process. I'll make sure the next Doctor knows that you need a rest before he takes you anywhere too exciting. And I think we'll be landing you with him while Romana was on board. That will be lovely," he told her.

Rose put on a brave face, not wanting to disappoint this version any more than the others at the moment. It was all exhausting, but even a good night's sleep wouldn't do much to help her relax from all of this.

When they landed near the fourth Doctor's TARDIS, Rose noticed that they seemed to be on an alien planet. The ground was slightly bluish in colour and the sky looked pinkish purple. She made a mental note to ask if they could go exploring before taking off for somewhere new, after a bit of a kip. Their knocking seemed to surprise the Doctor inside based on the confused look on his face when he opened the door.

"Hello. I was quite sure this planet was uninhabited, how did you get here?" he asked.

"Hello, Doctor. I am your tenth incarnation, and have come to introduce you to Rose Marion Tyler," the one currently holding Rose's hand announced formally.

The Doctor standing half inside the TARDIS blinked his owlish eyes a few times before granting Rose an enormous smile. "Oh Rose! How marvellous! We were just taking a holiday. I'm so glad you're here," he rambled, pulling her into the ship.

The pinstriped Doctor scowled a bit at having her taken away from his side before he had a chance to say goodbye properly and followed them into the TARDIS to be sure and get a kiss before he left. "Doctor," he interrupted. "If you'll recall, Rose said it was late in the day when she last left you. She's a bit tired."

"Yes, of course, you are. Of course, you are. We'll get you straight to bed and I can plan something really impressive for you when you wake up, then. How's that?" he responded excitedly.

"That would be lovely, Doctor, but perhaps you could read to me a bit before I go to bed?" Rose suggested. That was one of the things that she always loved to do with him.

"Perfect. Yes, quite perfect, indeed. Now, off you go, old chap. I'll take very good care of our Rose," he said, nearly tripping over his scarf in his hurry to push the other Doctor out the door.

"Hang on a minute! Rose, love, do I get a kiss to hold me over for the next couple of days?" her Doctor pleaded with his big brown puppy dog eyes.

"Of course you do, Doctor," she assured him and buried her fingers in his spikey hair to pull him into a toe curling snog. He wore a silly grin when she finally released him and giggled when he wobbled a bit before recovering his senses. "See you soon."

Rose took a few minutes to change into her pyjamas before meeting him in the library and was a bit surprised to see that he wasn't alone when she got there. Sitting across from him on the other sofa was a petite, blonde woman, sipping a cup of tea, and a very familiar looking K-9 sitting on the floor.

"Hello," Rose said as she entered.

"Rose! Come and sit down. You must meet Romana and K-9. This is Rose Tyler, she'll be staying on the TARDIS for a few days," he told them.

Curling up on the sofa next to the Doctor, she could tell she was being appraised by his companions. Rose wasn't sure what he may have told them about her before she entered the room.

"Sorry if I'm interrupting your holiday or anything," she said, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Nonsense, we weren't doing anything important at all. It's always nice to meet the Doctor's friends," Romana assured her. "How did you meet the Doctor?"

"Oh, well, he blew up my job actually," she told them.

"I what? You must be joking," the Doctor argued.

"Nope. I was in the basement of the department store, about to be killed by shop window dummies, when you grabbed my hand and told me to run. Once you'd gotten me outside, you blew up the building," Rose explained.

"Forgive me for asking, but Doctor, why don't you know this story?" Romana asked.

"Well, you see, Rose is from my personal future. I have met her several times now, but won't actually travel with her until, what was it? My tenth form?" he told her.

"Actually, we met while you were in your ninth. Been travelling with you for a few years now. Hard to say for sure, yeah? Easy to lose track of time while we're jumping all over the place," Rose corrected.

"She's from your future, and you've met her previously, and she's spending a few days here with you?" Romana repeated, looking at the Doctor knowingly.

He visibly blushed as he realized that Romana had worked out just why Rose was on board. The Doctor cleared his throat before continuing, "Yes, quite. Now Rose has asked that I read to her for a bit before she gets some rest for the evening. You two are welcome to stay in the library, though I'm sure you could find more interesting things to do."

Romana seemed to take the hint, taking K-9 with her to leave them alone.

"What was that about?" Rose wondered.

"Romana is a Time Lady. As such, she knows all about the process involved in creating a Bond like this. It's not something that is ever discussed in the open, but she clearly understands why you're here," he explained.

"And you're embarrassed?"

"Not by you, Rose, simply by the topic. I'm thrilled that you're here, now, what were we reading the last time I saw you? The Chronicles of Narnia, was it?"

When Rose awoke, she made her way to the kitchen to find something for breakfast. Upon entering, she found that the table was set with two plates filled with eggs, bacon, toast, hash browns, and fried tomatoes. There was a dish filled with fruit and yogurt, and a pot of tea was sitting under a cozy.

"Well, he's certainly pulling out all the stops," Romana commented when she entered the room behind her.

"What? Did the doctor do all this for me?" Rose asked.

"Of course he did. Has he not been making you breakfast all this time?" she questioned.

"Nothing like this," Rose mumbled.

Just then, the Doctor swept into the room and ushered Rose toward one of the chairs. "Good morning, I trust you slept well," he said as he placed a small vase holding a pink rose in the middle of the table.

"You've told me hundreds of times, Doctor, that there is no morning on the TARDIS," Rose teased him.

"Ah, well yes. That is true, but I'm sure you've probably made the argument as many of my human companions have that morning is whenever you wake up?" he countered.

"Usually just throw something at you and tell you not to try and get me up so early."

They both laughed and the Doctor sat with her to eat, leaving Romana to grab a few things herself before rolling her eyes and leaving them to it. They put the dishes in the dishwasher then made their way out to the console room.

"Are we still on that planet from when I got here? The one with the blue rocks and purple sky?" Rose asked.

"Hmm? Oh, yes, terribly boring place, this. Now, the waterfalls in the Amazon rainforest are absolutely breathtaking. How about a trip there before any humans ever set foot in the area? We could bring a picnic, perhaps go for a swim," he suggested.

"That sounds lovely, Doctor. I'll go and get changed then. Do you think Romana will want to come too?" Rose asked.

"Oh, I doubt it. She seems to be giving us a rather wide berth wouldn't you say?" he replied.

Rose headed back toward her room to get changed for swimming and the heat of the rainforest. On the way, she heard Romana talking with K-9, and couldn't help stopping in the hallway to listen.

"There's something just a bit off though, don't you think? It's like she doesn't really understand," Romana said.

"Mistress Rose was born human, therefore did not receive the same education on Gallifreyan rituals," K-9 told her.

"I suppose that's true."

Rose's heart leapt into her throat. Romana could see what she'd been terrified the Doctor would think all along. She wasn't good enough, she wasn't smart enough, and now Romana would tell the Doctor and they'd send her away. She ran to her room and shut the door, falling onto her bed, she began sobbing, knowing it was over before they'd even really started. Rose didn't know how long she lay there crying when there was a knock on the door. She sat up and frantically wiped at her face.

"Rose? Are you alright?" the Doctor asked as he opened the door. "You've been crying. Whatever is the matter?"

"I- I-," she choked on the words as she considered exactly what to say. "I don't want you to send me away."

"Send you away? What are you talking about?" the Doctor sat on the bed beside her and she immediately curled into his arms. This Doctor was tall and broad and absolutely enveloped her in the hug.

"When you realize that I'm not good enough, or smart enough, or whatever, you'll call my Doctor and tell him to just forget the whole thing and it'll all be over," she rambled, suddenly voicing all of the worries that she'd been bottling up for so long now.

"Oh, Rose, I didn't explain it all to you before this started, did I? No wonder you've been so confused," he sighed, taking her tearstained face in his hands and wiping it with his thumbs.

Rose stared up into his big, blue eyes and sniffled.

"This process of creating a bond between us, is not about you proving yourself. You've already done that, or I never would have asked you. No version of me is going to veto your future Doctor's decision that we want to bond with you, precious girl. When I regenerate, my whole personality changes, yes?" he explained. When she nodded her understanding, he continued, "But parts of all of my previous personalities and actions are still there."

"I know, you're still you," she agreed.

"And the fact that you can see that, is probably part of why I chose you. Now, this whole process is a chance for you to see all of those pieces that make up who I am. It's so that you can see all of the parts of me and make sure that I measure up, not the other way around. Just before you've left each version of me, I've asked for your permission to form the next part of the bond, and you've agreed. I was always worried that you'd say no and call it all off. How could you think that I didn't want to bond with you?"

"Is that what it was? I thought that was how you called him to come back for me," she mumbled.

"What? No, I called him through the TARDIS console. Are you saying that I've been forming this bond with you and you didn't even know what you were consenting to?" he asked.

"Well, I knew that's what I was here for. I wouldn't have said no, but I didn't realize that was what you were doing that exact moment," Rose admitted.

"I'm so sorry, Rose," he said, hugging her tightly. "I could smack my future self in the head for not explaining it better. I've been trying to court you and you thought you were only here to win over my favour. From the first moment that I was introduced to you, Rose Marion Tyler, there was never any question of your worthiness. Bonds are not taken lightly, no, it was a careful decision, I assure you."

"Sorry I didn't ask earlier about what I didn't understand. I didn't want you to think I was stupid. Told you before, I never finished school."

"I barely passed at the Academy myself. I'm sure Romana could tell you several things about my education," he admitted.

"You know I'm going to hold that over you now every time you try to tell me what a genius you are," she teased, finally smiling again.

"I never said that I wasn't a genius, only that I despise formal education," he insisted. "Now, why don't you get yourself changed for our little excursion into the Amazon, as planned. We'll enjoy a lovely picnic, see the incredible waterfalls, perhaps do a little swimming, and from now on, you'll see that all I want from you on this journey is to show you everything I can about myself. And maybe earn myself a kiss along the way."

He winked at her as he left her alone in her room once more to get ready.


	6. Chapter 6

The Doctor and Rose set out a large blanket on a relatively clear area by the side of a pool beneath a huge waterfall. The sight really was breathtaking. However, despite having assured Rose that they were visiting before any humans were around, they were taken by the native people back to their village as soon as they had finished eating. They were currently being held under guard while the elders discussed what to do about the suspicious visitors.

"No humans anywhere around yet?" Rose taunted.

"We may have arrived a bit later than I intended, but no need to worry, Rose. These people are farmers, they aren't violent. Everything will be fine," he assured her.

"They're not gonna sacrifice us or something?" she asked.

"You're thinking of Mayans, much farther North than these people, and even then it wasn't nearly as bad as the stories paint it. Ah, you see, our hosts have come to their senses," he said with a smile as the chief returned.

"Did you follow the falling star here?" the man asked them.

"Falling star you say? Why yes, we did, could you show us?" the Doctor agreed, eager to find out just what may have fallen from the sky.

At first the Doctor and Rose thought that the large metal object was a crashed spaceship, but it was actually a scout drone. The Ice Warriors on Mars were looking for a new planet to colonize and had sent the drone to check on the possibility of moving to the next nearest planet. The Doctor used his sonic to adjust the readings only slightly and made sure that they would find the entire planet far too hot for their liking and repaired it enough to send it on its way. While he was working on that, Rose assured them that the Doctor was appeasing the gods or some such nonsense that kept them from watching him too closely.

It was rather late by the time they made it back to the TARDIS. Romana and K-9 had just started scanning for them when they came through the door, a bit dirty from their ordeal.

"We were just about to go looking for you," Romana told them.

"Oh, nothing to worry about, just a bit of excitement with the locals," the Doctor replied.

Rose giggled and sighed, "So much for swimming. I'm gonna go get cleaned up a bit."

The next few days followed their usual routine of trying to get to one place and ending up in another. There was often a bit of trouble and Romana did join them in exploring a few times. In the end, even she had to admit that Rose seemed well suited to the Doctor's way of life.

On what they agreed would be Rose's last night with this particular Doctor, he was reading to her in the library, with her head resting in his lap as she played with his scarf.

"Thank you, Doctor," Rose said, interrupting him.

"Hmm? Whatever for?"

"For all of this. The whole Bonding thing between us. I never thought anything this good could happen in my life. I was just some chav from the estates and you've given me everything. Thank you," she explained, staring up at him.

He pulled her up to sit beside him and gave her a big hug. "You are very welcome, Rose. As I'm sure you're aware, I look for more important traits in choosing the people who travel with me. You are observant, quick thinking, marvellous with people, and the most compassionate soul that I've ever known."

"You only take the best," she quoted the future him.

"Did I say that?" he guessed and she nodded. "Well, that certainly applies to you, my dear."

Rose tugged gently on his scarf and pulled his face down for a kiss. It was soft, both kept their mouths closed and Rose sighed lightly through her nose as it lingered. When they finally broke apart, the couple stared into each other's eyes for a moment.

"Thank you," he whispered before ushering her off to get some sleep.

The next morning, Rose packed up her bigger on the inside suitcase once again and made her way back to the console room. She said goodbye to Romana and K-9 along the way and met her scarf wearing Doctor as he sent the message to the future TARDIS from the console. Rose wasn't sure what to say as they waited for the other Doctor to arrive and felt the silence becoming a bit awkward.

Just as she was about to make some useless comment however, there finally came a knock on the door. The current Doctor invited the future one inside for a moment before they left.

"Just a few moments of your time. A few moments to tell you that you are a complete idiot!" he shouted suddenly, taking the other Doctor by surprise.

"What?!" he gasped, looking desperately at Rose.

"You didn't explain anything to her at all! Rose has been suffering this whole time under the impression that she somehow had to win us all over out of fear that we would send her away. Why in the world did you not explain what all of this was for?" the younger Doctor demanded.

"What? Rose, how could you ever think-"

"Don't blame this on her!" he interrupted before he could step in it even further.

"I'd never! Rose, all of this is because I love you," her pinstriped Doctor assured her, taking both of her hands into his own. "You have nothing to prove to any version of me."

"I know that now, Doctor. Would have been good to know from the start though. And exactly what they were asking permission for when they all went into my head," she told him.

All he could manage was to gape at her, wide eyed, when he realized that he really had bolloxed things up by not explaining everything completely.

"Forgive me, love, please forgive me," he begged, suddenly falling on his knees in front of her.

"Stop it. Everything's fine now, Doctor. Let's just get going, yeah?" Rose assured him.

Before heading out the door, Rose stood in front of the younger Doctor and reached up on her toes as she pulled him down by his scarf again, to give him a kiss on the lips. He smiled and hummed happily, wrapping his arms around her to hold her there for a moment longer. The older Doctor smirked, both a little bit jealous, but also very happy that their Bond seemed to be progressing just fine. The younger Doctor placed his fingers on her temples, not breaking the kiss as he established his part of the Bond in her mind.

"I'll see you again soon, Rose," he told her when he had finished.

"Not if I see you first," she responded, using a phrase she often said to her future Doctor.

Rose and her Doctor headed back to the other TARDIS so that he could pilot her to visit with the next incarnation of himself. She could tell that he was still upset by the misunderstanding.

"Stop kicking yourself, Doctor. You've already made it up to me, you just don't remember," she insisted.

"But it wasn't his mistake to begin with, love. I'm the one that was too embarrassed about the topic to even bother explaining it to you properly. I knew you hadn't been raised with an awareness of the process and still didn't take the time to go over everything in detail with you," he argued.

"Fine, if you want to make it up to me some more once all this is over, I'll let you. But please don't keep torturing yourself over it. I want you to be happy. What we're doing is making me so happy, Doctor. I can't wait for it to be completed," she said.

"Me too," he sighed. "Right, off to see the next me!"

The TARDIS appeared to have landed on Earth. Rose could see the other TARDIS parked straight ahead and dashed across to knock on the door. Her Doctor ran after her, needing to be the one to introduce her in order to unlock the past Doctor's memories of their previous meetings. He needn't worry about rushing though, because the door was not opened by the Doctor but a young boy.

"Hello, Adric," he said, prompting a look of confusion on his face.

"Hello. Doctor?" he called inside the ship, not sure what to make of the visitors.

"What is it, Adric? Oh, hello, can I help you?" the blonde Doctor asked.

"Hello, Doctor. I am your tenth incarnation, and have come to introduce you to Rose Marion Tyler," the older Doctor announced.

Rose waved at him with a smile as the younger Doctor took a moment to remember just what was happening. He returned her smile, then looked at the older Doctor.

"Is this the best time for me? You know I have three companions along right now," he asked.

Rose wondered a bit if he wasn't happy to see her.

"I know you'd rather have her all to yourself, but things get a bit dangerous later and I'd rather keep her clear of any involvement with the Guardians," the other Doctor informed him.

"You don't want me to meet your friends, Doctor?" Rose asked.

"It's not that, Rose. I'd love for you to meet everyone I've ever travelled with, but it means we won't get much privacy while you're here," he assured her.

"Anyway, I'll see you soon, love," the pinstriped Doctor said, pulling her in for a goodbye kiss before heading back to his own TARDIS. "Hi Adric, my name's Rose," she added to the boy who had been watching the whole interaction with growing curiosity.

"And that was another regeneration of the Doctor?" he guessed.

"You guessed that just from that little bit of conversation?" the Doctor questioned.

"He said he was your tenth incarnation, Doctor. If that wasn't enough, he mentioned things being dangerous in your future," Adric pointed out.

"Blimey, can't get anything past you," Rose said.

"I'm sure Nyssa, Tegan, and I can find a way to keep ourselves busy for a little while, Doctor. Give you some time alone with her," Adric added.

"I'm sorry Adric, I didn't mean to imply that I wouldn't want to have any of you around for any length of time. I just don't get to see Rose very often," the Doctor apologized.

"Nevermind, Doctor, why don't you introduce me to your friends and we can all go do something together," Rose interjected. She liked meeting his companions. It was good to know that he tried to avoid travelling alone because he had a tendency to blame himself for things going wrong and needed someone around to help pull him out of it.

Nyssa and Tegan were both in the kitchen, so they all had something to eat while discussing where to go next. Tegan was apparently trying to get back to Heathrow and the Doctor could never seem to land her there quite right. Nyssa was from a planet called Traken and had started travelling with the Doctor after an enemy called the Master had killed her parents. Adric had stowed away on the TARDIS after a trip into E-Space and the Doctor had sort of adopted him for the time being.

"So, what are you doing here then?" Tegan questioned.

"Just visiting," Rose answered, knowing that the Doctor hadn't wanted his companions to know the nature of their visits.

"She's in a relationship with the Doctor," Adric said bluntly.

"Well, she is, uh," the Doctor stuttered, flustered by that observation.

"I am, but that's nothing you all need to worry about. I'm just visiting for a few days. So, where should we go for a little fun?" Rose interjected, eager to change the subject. Adric had noticed too much when she was dropped off here to deny any of it, but she didn't want them asking uncomfortable questions or teasing the Doctor about it.

They decided that somewhere with lots of shopping would be nice. That way the group could split up for dinner to give the Doctor and Rose a chance to be on their own without completely abandoning his friends to boring days in the TARDIS. The Doctor gave his companions some credit sticks to spend and used the TARDIS to make a reservation for dinner before they all left the ship.

Rose had a great time shopping for clothes with Nyssa and Tegan, while the Doctor and Adric looked at more mechanical and scientific items. Tegan was interested in what might be different in London in Rose's time compared to her own time in the eighties.

"Well, I was born in 1986, but don't remember much of the eighties myself. S'pose the biggest difference you'd notice is that everyone's got a mobile," Rose told them and pulled out her phone.

"It's so small! And everyone has one?" Tegan asked.

"Pretty much. Other thing I guess would be the internet. All the computers are connected, yeah? So you can like look up anything you need instead of using encyclopedias and stuff," she explained.

"Things to look forward to when I finally get home."

"Well, it's just about time for our dinner reservation, Rose. We will meet all of you back at the TARDIS in a few hours," the Doctor interrupted, pulling her away from the group.

Their reservation got them a fairly private table where they could talk freely without getting odd looks. The Doctor ordered for them again, having gotten a sense through their previous visits of the types of foods that Rose liked.

"There've been a few enemies of yours mentioned that I've never heard of before. The Master with Nyssa and my Doctor said something about Guardians?" Rose asked, always a bit worried when she was suddenly faced with scary things that the Doctor knew about but hadn't mentioned to her.

"Romana and I had just dealt with the Guardians before seeing you the last time, I don't look forward to facing them again. The Guardians of Time are very powerful beings that influence the whole universe. They don't usually interact directly with ephemerals, but have taken an interest in me from time to time. As for the Master, we went to the Academy together. He was a friend originally, but his morals were twisted and corrupted so badly that all he ever seems to want anymore is to destroy and try to take over anywhere he can," the Doctor told her.

"I'm sorry you lost a friend in him. You don't seem to have a lot of friends from home," Rose said.

"I don't really fit in on Gallifrey. Makes it difficult to find other Time Lords that want anything to do with me. Romana is one of very few. My family only deals with me when they have to, so I generally stay away," he explained.

"Is it pretty?"

"I've never taken you to Gallifrey?" he asked, a bit surprised.

"No," Rose replied, sorry she'd brought it up because she couldn't possibly tell him that it was gone now.

"Well, maybe we'll have to stop there. Steer clear of the people of course, but I'd love for you to see the fields and the mountains," he said.

When they got back to the TARDIS that evening, the Doctor checked to make sure the others were all on board before moving the ship into the vortex for the night. Rose went to bed without reading in the library since it was already late, looking forward to seeing the Doctor's home.


	7. Chapter 7

The Doctor woke Rose fairly early, hoping that he could have this trip done before the others even noticed that they'd landed anywhere. He wanted to share this with Rose, but that was all. She dressed quickly and when they opened the TARDIS doors, she saw that he had prepared their breakfast and set it out on a blanket in the red grass. There were two suns in the sky, just rising over the nearby mountains, and the silver leafed trees sparkled in the growing light.

"It's beautiful," she whispered as she took in the landscape.

"It is. We can't stay long. I don't want anyone noticing that I'm around or they'll likely ask me to do something unpleasant. But I wanted you to see it. I don't know why I haven't brought you here in your usual timeline," he said.

Rose just smiled, letting him know that she knew why he hadn't but couldn't say. She made sure to pay close attention to the smells and sounds around them, knowing that she'd likely never see any of it again. The Doctor pointed out all of the unfamiliar insects, birds, and even some tafelshrews (which looked a bit like field mice). He presented Rose with a small bouquet of flowers including schlenk blossoms and arkytior. He told her that the schlenk blossoms were his favourite smell from home and arkytior was the Gallifreyan version of roses, so he wanted to make sure those were included.

They went back inside when they were done eating, happily noting that the others were just getting up now and they could leave Gallifrey without them knowing they'd been there at all. Rose put her flowers in some water and placed them on the table in her room.

The group of time travellers spent the rest of the day on a planet that had been turned entirely into an amusement park, with surprisingly little trouble. It was unusual that they didn't encounter some kind of invasion or something while travelling with the Doctor, but they enjoyed the break while it lasted. The next day had them visiting a cruise ship in space that was almost destroyed by a sentient computer virus, but the Doctor and Adric managed to stop it before anyone was seriously hurt. Everyone was happy to spend the next day just lounging inside the TARDIS after that, thankful that their ship, though sentient, was very nice to her passengers.

Rose and the Doctor were curled up on the sofa in the library, reading. She got tired of her book, however, and decided that snuggling with this Doctor was far preferable. He seemed a bit flustered when she put down her book and crawled into his lap for a hug.

"Rose, what are you doing?" he asked.

"You're cuddly," she answered with a sigh.

He still seemed a bit unsure of the situation while he continued reading, so Rose took the initiative and started kissing his neck. She felt his whole body tense for a moment, then he put his book down and held her tightly in his arms.

"Rose."

"Yes, Doctor?" she said between kisses behind his ear.

"I'm not really sure how to do this. Time Lords don't usually have physical relations," he told her awkwardly.

"Oh. Well, you learn at some point because you knew what to do when we get together in your future. But, since you won't remember this, it's probably not with me. Do you want me to stop?" she asked.

"No. Gods no, that feels wonderful."

Rose turned to straddle his lap and pressed her body against his as she kissed him, stroking her tongue across his lips, then into his mouth when he opened for her. He caught on quickly to what she was doing, grasping her bum as she rocked herself harder on the erection she could feel through his trousers.

"Is there- oh, is there something I should do for you?" he asked, not wanting to be selfish about this.

Rose held one of his hands in place where it was on her bottom, and moved the other to grasp her breast, while she kept rocking against him. "Just keep touching me, please."

He did as she asked and couldn't seem to help thrusting his hips up against her for even more friction. His kisses moved to her neck to copy what she was doing to him earlier, using the sounds she was making as a guide to what she liked most. It wasn't long before Rose cried out, tensing with her orgasm, and pressing herself harder against him. The sight of which had the Doctor releasing as well, making an awkward wet patch in his trousers. She collapsed in his arms, both of them breathing heavily despite his respiratory bypass.

After several minutes of just catching their breath, the Doctor commented, "I'm wondering now why Time Lords don't have physical relations."

"Their loss," Rose giggled.

"Rose, that was wonderful. And while I'm not ready for anything more than that at the moment, I was wondering if you would sleep in my bed tonight. Just so I can hold you while you sleep?" he asked hopefully.

"I'd love that, Doctor. I always sleep better when you're with me," she replied.

They each had a shower (separately) and changed into their pyjamas, before meeting in the Doctor's bedroom. It looked exactly the same now as it did in Rose's time, as if the centuries between the Doctors made no difference here at all. Rose already knew which side he preferred and crawled into the other side to settle in for the night. He tried to hide what book he had chosen to read while she slept, but she caught a glimpse of the title and smiled. He would probably snooze a bit with her later, but in the meantime, he was reading a book about human sexual techniques. Rose snuggled under the covers and leaned her back up against his side. The Doctor stroked her hair softly until she fell asleep.

When Rose awoke, the Doctor's arms were wrapped around her and he was sleeping. It wasn't often that she caught him sleeping, but sometimes. And this Doctor wasn't used to how nice it was to sleep with someone else, so she just used the time to take in all of his lovely features and think about all that she had done on this journey with him.

She had learned quite a lot about him already, and she was only halfway through this bonding process. Rose was happy with this most recent development because she had been getting tired of sleeping alone. Their little make out session in the library had been nice as well. If his reading material was any indication, there would be more of that in the future.

The Doctor's eyes fluttered open and he looked at Rose confusedly for a moment before he remembered what she was doing in his bed. "Good morning," he said, his voice a bit gravelly from sleep.

"No morning in the TARDIS, Doctor," she teased, taking on the tone of voice her leather clad Doctor used to use when he told her that.

"Cheeky," he commented and rolled over her for a kiss.

Rose laughed, glad that he was so playful upon waking up. They tickled each other and kissed for a while, but when they finally settled back down, the couple seemed to come to the same conclusion.

"It's time, isn't it?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah, I think it is," Rose agreed.

Collecting her things from the other bedroom, including the flowers from Gallifrey, Rose made her way to the console room. Along the way, she found Nyssa, Tegan, and Adric, so she said goodbye and reminded them that the Doctor wouldn't remember the last few days once she was gone, so they shouldn't mention any of it to him.

The Doctor was waiting for her when she arrived, flicking switches absentmindedly.

"Don't be sad, love. You won't even remember enough to miss me," she told him.

"I know. I still don't want this to be over," he sighed.

"You and I are far from over, Doctor," Rose assured him and reached up on her toes to give him a kiss.

"You're right. Sorry."

"It's alright, I understand. I'm going to miss this version of you too," she said.

He sent the message to his future self that it was time to come and get Rose, then approached her to complete his portion of the Bond in her mind. Rose sighed happily at his mental touch. She could feel their connection strengthening now that she knew what he was doing. Just as he finished and was pulling his hands away from her temples, the future Doctor came through the door.

"Thank you, Doctor," Rose told the Doctor in the cricketing outfit.


	8. Chapter 8

"If I leave my flowers here, will they still be nice when I get back?" Rose asked.

"I took you to Gallifrey?" he gasped.

"Just for a quick picnic in the grass, but it was beautiful, Doctor."

"I'll make them last. Promise," he assured her.

The Doctor closed his eyes as he took in the scent of schlenk blossoms and arkytior, holding her in his arms and leaning his head on top of hers. Rose guessed he was imagining what it would be like to lie together in the red grass, flowers blooming around them, flutterwings in the air and tafelshrews darting through the field. She hugged him tighter knowing that he must miss his home very much.

Once he had gotten his emotions under control, the Doctor moved to pilot them to their next destination. Rose put the vase of flowers on the kitchen table before they landed, sure that the Doctor would put them in stasis or something for her, but also wanting to give him a chance to enjoy them.

After knocking on the door of the younger TARDIS, they were greeted by a Doctor with curly, blonde hair, wearing a jacket with dozens of contrasting colours and patterns. The older Doctor winced at the sight of his previous self's fashion sense.

"Who are you and what do you want?" he demanded.

"Hello, Doctor. I am your tenth incarnation, and have come to introduce you to Rose Marion Tyler," the pinstriped Doctor told him.

The sixth Doctor stared into the middle distance in confusion for a moment, but he smiled brightly when the memories unlocked. He surprised everyone, including his current companion, when he pulled Rose into his arms and dipped her backward, kissing her roughly.

"I've missed you, without even remembering that I missed you," he told her when he finally released her from the kiss.

"Doctor, are you alright?" Peri questioned.

"Ah yes, Peri. I'd like you to meet Rose Tyler. She will be with us for the next few days," he explained.

"Doctor, a minute ago you didn't even know who these people were," she argued.

"Sorry, Peri. I'll explain, knowing him, he'll just prevaricate for the next hour and not really say anything," the older Doctor interrupted. Peri smirked at the accurate assessment. "I'm also the Doctor, just a few regenerations along. When I meet myself out of order, I have to lock the memories of the meetings away so I don't disrupt the timelines. The phrase that I used earlier unlocked those memories for him. He's not under some sort of alien influence or anything."

"Ok, and Rose is?" she wondered.

"My fiancée," the younger Doctor announced, making the older Doctor blush. It wasn't something that was discussed openly with his people, but if any version of him were likely to flaunt their relationship with Rose, it would be this peacock.

"It's nice to meet you, Peri," Rose said, shaking her hand politely.

The rainbow coloured Doctor was looking smug as his younger self gaped at him.

"I think he's just a bit surprised because you usually keep our relationship a bit more private, Doctor," Rose explained.

"And why should I hide that fact that this magnificent angel has graced my timeline with her shining light? I should climb to the top of Mount Cadon and shout for all of Gallifrey to hear that Rose Marion Tyler has consented to become my wife," the younger Doctor told them dramatically.

"Yes, quite, erm," the older Doctor agreed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Rose, love, I'll see you again soon," he said, giving her a quick kiss goodbye.

"Let me take your bag, darling, and put it in our room. Back in a moment," he announced.

"Sorry, Peri, I hope this isn't making you uncomfortable," Rose told her once it was just the two of them in the console room.

"Oh, with him, this isn't even the strangest thing to happen this week," she replied.

"I'm sure it isn't," Rose laughed. "Life with the Doctor is never boring."

"You're really his fiancée?"

"Well, yeah, sort of. They do things a bit differently for his people, but by human standards we're engaged, I guess," Rose explained.

"Now, my intrepid companions, where shall we go for our next adventure?" the Doctor asked when he returned.

"Well, we could take you shopping for a new outfit," Rose teased, making Peri laugh.

"What is wrong with my clothes?!" he asked indignantly.

Rose laughed at his response, giving him a hug to show that she didn't mean to hurt his feelings. "Nothing, Doctor, I was only joking. I'm happy to go anywhere you'd like, but let's do something that will be fun for Peri too, I don't want her feeling like third wheel."

"I know just the thing! The Hanging Garden at Nineveh! You see, Peri is a botanist. She can enjoy seeing the wide variety of plants, while you and I can go for a lovely walk together. What do you say?" he suggested.

"Sounds good to me, how about you, Peri?" Rose asked.

"It sounds incredible!" Peri agreed.

As they walked through the enormous gardens, the Doctor explained the engineering needed to bring water up to this level and how it was quite a feat at this point in history. Peri had wandered off to look at the various species of plants some time ago, and Rose was just happy to be walking with him, hand in hand, through this beautiful place. She let him babble about how brilliant everything was, because every version of him that she'd known had loved showing off how much he knew about all of it.

"So, is this like a public park or something?" Rose asked.

"No, it's part of the palace of King Sennacherib. There's a massive wall protecting it," he told her.

"Will we get in trouble for trespassing or anything?" she questioned, knowing their penchant for getting into trouble.

"Oh, I shouldn't think so. They don't spend all their time in here, no one should even notice us," he assured her.

Which of course meant that they were running for their lives in short order. The palace guards had seen Peri, so she ran to find the Doctor and Rose. All three had been taken prisoner and questioned before they managed to escape and run back to the TARDIS.

The doors were shut quickly, before the guards could follow them inside, and the Doctor quickly piloted them away. Rose stood by the door laughing at the whole thing, earning her an odd look from Peri, and amusement from the Doctor.

"God, life with you is always mental!" Rose laughed.

"We were about to be executed, and you think it's funny?" Peri questioned.

"We're always about to be executed, or burned at the stake, or thrown into a volcano. And we always find a way out to just go do it again!" Rose told her.

"You are perfection!" the Doctor shouted and dashed across the room to lift her into a spinning hug.

"Well, I think you're both crazy. I'm going to take a long hot bath after all that," Peri told them and left for her room.

"Hmmm, a bath sounds like a marvellous idea, don't you think?" the Doctor nearly purred in her ear.

"You're so different," Rose responded, just looking at him as she considered his suggestion.

"Ah, but remember, while my future self may suppress certain aspects of this persona, I am still a part of him. My desire to declare my love for you to the universe, and shower you with affection is as much a part of him as me," he told her.

"I'm not saying that you aren't affectionate and physical with me in the future, Doctor. It just took such a long time for you to show it, and the ones before you were a lot less open, at least in front of everyone else," Rose explained.

"Well, whatever was holding me back from you before our relationship began in your time, has been removed from the equation. I know that we love each other, or creating a bond with you would never have been considered. And may I remind you, it was you that started things in the library during our last encounter?" he said, trying to entice her some more.

"Didn't know me laughing about our adventures would get you so randy," she teased.

"It wasn't your laughing, though that is music to my ears. Running back to the TARDIS with you, all of the adrenaline and endorphins pumping through our blood, the excitement of the chase, seeing you beautifully flushed from exertion. Reminds me of how you look after other activities."

"Hmm, did that book you were reading while we were in bed last time suggest sharing a bath?" she asked.

He blushed for a second at having been called out, but quickly caught himself.

"And what if it did? Would you be suddenly opposed to such activities?" he pressed.

"On the contrary, I'd be interested in finding out just how much you managed to learn from a book," she replied and dashed off towards their bedroom.

The Doctor chased her through the hallway, only catching up to her as she headed into their en suite. She laughed as he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into a kiss. Rose threaded her fingers into his hair and scratched at the back of his neck, the way her future Doctor liked. He responded by starting to tug at her clothing.

"Tell you what, Doctor, I'll get that water running in the bath, and you start getting all those layers off," she said, pulling away before he got very far.

Rose was happy to watch him be the one to struggle with the buttons on his jacket, waistcoat, shirt, and finally wrestle off his undershirt rather than having to do it herself. Pulling her tshirt and jeans off took less time than he did with just his trousers, but left him just enough to remove from her. One glance at her sitting on the edge of the tub in just her bra and knickers had him diving toward her for another kiss.

Once they were both settled in the tub, the Doctor had Rose lying with her back against his front, between his legs. He used this position to touch her in all the ways that his book on human sex had suggested, making mental notes of everything that elicited the best responses from her. It started out with squeezing her breasts as he buried his face in her neck. He kissed and licked and nipped at her skin, thoroughly enjoying the scent of her as she writhed against him.

He left one hand tugging at her nipple as his other started roaming lower. Rose moaned deliciously when he reached the spot his book had indicated was the most sensitive area for human females. She placed her fingers over his, helping to guide him in rubbing little circles on her clitoris. Rose shouted his name, begged him never to stop, and threw her head back, her hair over his shoulder. He sucked on her neck where it met her shoulder, leaving a mark as he touched her. When Rose's body tensed with her orgasm, some water sloshed over the side of the tub.

She slumped in his arms for only a moment before she turned herself around and straddled his legs. The position was a bit awkward in the restricted space, but it seemed that Rose might have some practice with this when she positioned herself over him. She looked into his eyes to make sure that this was what he wanted before lowering herself onto his erection. The Doctor closed his eyes and groaned at the unbelievable feeling of being inside of her this way.

"Doctor," she sighed.

"Yes, darling," he replied, guiding her movements with his hands on her hips.

"Can you go in my head? You usually do, so we can feel each other," she asked.

"Oh yes," he nearly shouted, clearly pleased that she had suggested it.

His hands reached up to touch her temples and she immediately felt his presence in her mind, allowing their physical pleasure to be shared back and forth, ramping up the sensations exponentially. Rose tugged on his hair as she pulled him in for another kiss and he lifted her up to sit on the edge of the tub against the wall. He kneeled in front of her and found that the height was perfect to slam into her the way he hadn't managed while she was on top of him. She was pinned against the wall and he used the position to touch every inch of her that wasn't currently pressed up against him. In moments, they both shouted their release, and splashed back into the water.

Their bath had gone cold and at least half of the water was now on the floor.

"Thank you, Doctor," Rose sighed.

"No, thank you. That was incredible," he said, trying to reach for the fluffy towels nearby, but realizing that he would have to actually get out of the tub to reach them.

"I mean, thank you for that telepathic thing. Wasn't sure that you'd want to," she told him.

"I wasn't going to ask. It's considered even more intimate than the physical act among telepaths," he admitted.

"I love it. Being able to feel how much you love me while we're having sex is just amazing," she said. "We should probably get dried off and dressed for supper. Getting a bit cold in here now."

"Without a doubt," he agreed, moving to wrap her up in a bath towel before grabbing his own.

They agreed on pizza to share with Peri as an apology for almost getting her executed. She seemed to appreciate the gesture and didn't mind giving them some privacy in the library before bed, content to watch a movie in her room.

The Doctor and Rose contented themselves with reading for the time being, still sated from their earlier playtime. Though Rose did tease him a bit about how thorough his studying of that sex book had been. Her head was in his lap as he read to her and stroked his fingers through her hair. When he finished the book they'd been reading, he saw that she had fallen asleep. He happily carried her to bed and curled himself around her.


	9. Chapter 9

While Rose was happy to be as physically close with this Doctor as she was with her future one, she did have to convince him to leave the bedroom during her visit for at least a little while. Peri was liable to get bored if they didn't do anything for a few days, and she really did want to get to know this Doctor on more than a physical level.

Instead of risking being arrested again, the Doctor took them to several public gardens. It meant that there were more people around, but it was much safer. In fact, Peri felt so comfortable with their visit that she didn't mind when the Doctor took Rose away to a restaurant for dinner, leaving her on her own.

The Doctor had insisted that Rose dress formally for the occasion and he even changed into a plain black and white tuxedo for the sake of the dress code at the restaurant. She found a dark blue evening gown, covered with glittering crystals that made it look like she was wearing the night sky. Rose made sure to wear flats, just in case they had to run for some reason and met him in the console room as soon as she finished curling her hair, leaving it down in large waves.

"Absolutely stunning," the Doctor said when he saw her.

Rose smiled at the compliment and took his arm as he escorted her out on their date.

The venue was filled with various species of aliens, all dressed to the nines, dining and dancing the night away. Dinner was assorted plates of finger foods that they were expected to share and feed to each other as part of the whole experience. The Doctor taught her a few of the common dances and requested a waltz for them as well, because he knew she enjoyed it. They managed to get through the evening without any emergencies demanding their attention and were back in the TARDIS around the time that Peri was heading to bed herself. They bid her goodnight and Rose went to get ready for bed.

The Doctor wasn't tired, of course, but wanted to be with Rose while she was here, so brought himself a few books to read while in bed with her for the night. One of them was another book about human sex, but most of them actually covered human weddings, wanting to know how to include some of her traditions as well.

The next day, the Doctor brought his companions to a museum. Peri rolled her eyes, knowing full well what this was all about, as he'd brought her somewhere similar before. Rose was a bit confused though. Her Doctors never showed any interest in this sort of thing. When he started telling her about his role in just about every exhibit, or how wrong the inscriptions were, she caught on. He was showing off.

When Rose spotted something familiar to her, however, she knew just how to turn the tables on him. A large, green arm lay in one of the glass boxes, labelled as having been excavated from a mysterious bunker in Utah that was filled with cement.

"That can't be right," he mumbled.

"Ah, you see, here we have the arm of a member of the Slitheen family, originating on Raxacoricofallapatorius. In the year 2006, they managed to take over 10 Downing Street in London, in an effort to have all of the planet's nuclear weapons destroy the planet so that they could sell it off as radioactive fuel. They were stopped by the Doctor, Rose, Harriet Jones, and Mickey Smith when they used a missile to blow up 10 Downing Street," she told him, in full tour guide mode.

"Well," he said, suitably impressed. "That sounds like quite an adventure."

"What are we doing here?" she asked.

"It is a bit gratuitous isn't it? Alright, enough flaunting my own arrogance. Let's go do something fun," he admitted and they went to find Peri.

The group ended up back in London for some chips, where they participated in a pub quiz that gave them all a chance to show off their knowledge a bit. They had a marvellous time before retiring for the night.

Rose and the Doctor were back in the library, reading. It had been an exciting few days, but Rose knew it was time to keep going the next day. She moved to curl up in his lap, wanting to enjoy this time as much as she could.

"You're leaving in the morning, aren't you?" he asked sadly.

"I think I should," she answered. "I've had a wonderful visit, but I'm not meant to stay for too long."

"I know. You just make me so happy, I never want you to leave," he told her, squeezing her tightly.

"We'll have forever, Doctor. I promise," she assured him.

The next morning, after finishing the breakfast that the Doctor had prepared, Rose said goodbye to Peri and got ready to leave. The Doctor sent the necessary message to the future Doctor, then moved to face Rose and complete the next part of their Bond. He decided that he wanted to be kissing her while doing this, adding to the intimacy of it all.

When they both emerged from their telepathic connection, the pinstripe wearing Doctor was standing by the doors. He smiled at the sight. It probably should have made him jealous, but he knew that this was important in creating a life with her that would last for centuries. The Bond that he wanted with her wasn't possible without all of this.

Back in their own TARDIS, Rose could see that the Doctor was debating something about their next coordinates.

"What is it, Doctor? Is something wrong?" she asked.

"No. No, nothing's wrong. I'm just trying to decide on the best time in my seventh life to send you," he told her. "Really only one choice, I suppose."

He started setting up their flight and moved around the console as needed to keep them on course.

"You still don't remember anything that's happened so far?" she wondered.

"Not a thing, although I gather from the bits that I've seen that things have become, erm, a bit intimate," he replied.

Rose smirked. "A bit yeah. It's been, interesting to say the least. It might not be something that you want to tell me about, but I was just wondering something. Your fifth self didn't know how to do anything physical, but I caught you reading up on it. I know you had some experience that you remembered before we got together now. Were your other relationships serious?"

"They were complicated. Nothing like what we have. I don't think I ever would have suggested a Bond with anyone else. I can't say that my life has been completely innocent, Rose. You know me better than that. But don't doubt that you are the most important to me," he assured her.

They had landed and Rose moved to give him a deep kiss before going out the doors. The passionate days with the rainbow Doctor had been fun, but she missed the sweet intimacy that she shared with her usual Doctor. The kiss was slow, their tongues twisting around each other's for several long minutes before Rose needed to breathe. He pressed his forehead against hers for a moment before taking her hand to lead her out to the other TARDIS.

The Doctor knocked on the door, but didn't seem surprised when no one answered it. He sighed and took out his key to unlock the door himself. Up until now, all of the console rooms had been quite similar. They were usually white, with a small, hexagonal console in the middle of the room, and occasionally a bit of furniture. This was completely different. It felt as though they had entered an old library. The space was filled with wooden bookshelves and drawers, there were various side tables, knicknacks, and a few persian rugs on the floor. Off to one side, there were huge metal struts, surrounding what appeared to be the console, but the controls looked more steampunk than futuristic.

The only person in the room, was a dark haired man, in a beige suit who sat in a leather armchair reading. He seemed to be pretending that he hadn't noticed their arrival or didn't care, but it was obvious that he just seemed annoyed at having someone able to enter his TARDIS without his permission.

"Sorry to interrupt," the older Doctor said. "Hello, Doctor. I am your tenth incarnation, and have come to introduce you to-"

"Rose Marion Tyler," the other Doctor interrupted, suddenly looking at Rose in deep thought.

"How did?" she gasped.

"We're getting close now. Our Bond is nearly complete and he can feel it now," the pinstriped Doctor told her.

"Hmm, curious," the younger Doctor commented, his fingers steepled in front of his face.

"Look, are you going to be like this the whole time? Rose is liable to change her mind if you keep at it," he shouted.

"Sorry. Of course, I'll be the perfect host," he replied, finally standing up from his chair. "Nothing to worry about, Doctor."

Rose noted that he was quite a bit shorter than most of the other Doctors, except perhaps the second one. He wore a jumper covered in red question marks under his jacket and had a paisley scarf tucked under the lapels.

"We'll be fine, love. I'll see you soon, yeah?" Rose assured her pinstriped Doctor before he left. Once they were alone, she turned back to this new incarnation and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Let's have some tea while we talk, Rose."

He prepared a fresh pot of tea and brought some cakes to the sitting area in the console room from the kitchen. He settled back in his chair, while she sat, alone, on the sofa across from him. Rose got the sense that her Doctor knew he might be like this before dropping her off and that was why he had been considering their coordinates so carefully.

"I've been travelling alone," he began.

"You shouldn't do that," she told him.

"And why would you say that?" he wondered.

"Because you deal with a lot in your travels and you tend to blame yourself when things go wrong. Having someone else around means they can remind you of all the good that you've done and reassure you that you made a good choice," she explained. Rose was sure that he knew travelling alone wasn't a good idea either, but he had been curious about her reasoning. "I told you on my first visit, you taught me a better way of living. You taught me to say no, make a stand, and do something to help when no one else will. And then you told me to never question that."

"Quite right," he agreed. "And I have been wallowing in guilt, I suppose. I've not been the nicest person this time around."

"If what you said about my future Doctor is true, that all your previous personalities are buried in there somewhere, making up who you are now, then you can be a nice person. You have to choose to be," she argued.

"You truly are brilliant, Rose," he told her and finally moved to sit beside her on the sofa. He held up his arm and she quickly moved to snuggle beneath it. "In that case, I've chosen to be a manipulative bastard in this form. That almost makes it worse, really. The fact that I can't blame it on the regeneration, only my own poor decisions."

"We can't change what's been done, even with a time machine. But you can choose to be better from now on," she told him. "Though I think it probably wasn't as bad as you think it was."

"You see me on my best behaviour. While I try to prove myself worthy of your light," he argued.

"Doctor, when I first met you, you'd just been through a lot. I don't think I can tell you about it, even if you will forget this later, but you were so broken. You thought you would destroy anything you touched. But together we ran, and we helped people, and we made a difference for good. I've seen the dark side of you Doctor. I fell in love with that first. Let me help you," she said.

"You and your boundless compassion. You deserve perfection, but are drawn to those that need you most. I'll never be worthy of you, Rose. You would be better off giving up on me."

"Stop it. I'm not going anywhere," she snapped harshly. "Take me dancing, Doctor."

"What?"

"I'm going to go get changed and I want you to take me dancing somewhere. Show me something impressive."

Rose carried her suitcase with her to the hallway and placed a hand on the wall to ask the TARDIS where their room was. A light appeared over a nearby door to direct her and Rose entered the familiar space. Upon opening the wardrobe, the TARDIS had chosen a dress for her to wear and even provided matching shoes. Based on the heels, she presumed that the ship wasn't planning to bring them somewhere with any trouble, probably feeling that the Doctor himself was enough trouble for the moment.

When she returned to the console room, the Doctor had piloted them somewhere. He was still at the controls and didn't turn to look at her even though she knew that he had heard her. Rose sighed, knowing that this wasn't going to be easy, but the Doctor needed her and she was used to that more than what had been happening on this journey.

"Ready to go, then?" he asked, heading toward the doors.

"Yes, Doctor," she said moving to grasp his arm even if he didn't offer it.

He led her out of the TARDIS and towards a huge castle. He presented an invitation to the man at the door, and Rose made a mental note to ask him how long he had been waiting to use it. There was a ball going on. The people looked human, but something about the decor told Rose that this wasn't Earth.

The Doctor directed her to which of the foods were safe for her to eat, but since he didn't seem interested in engaging her in conversation, Rose spoke with the people around them instead. She tried to involve him in the conversation, used to travelling with a broody Doctor. She hadn't had to do this since her Doctor regenerated, but the first months with her leather Doctor had been very much like this. When they finished eating, he held out his hand and she was happy when he walked her over to the dance floor. He took her into a formal waltz position and finally looked into her eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Have you decided to stop being a bastard yet?" she asked. "It's your choice, remember?"

"Yes. If you're going to be stubborn enough not to leave, the least I can do is treat you the way you deserve. I'm sorry."

"You're forgiven. What will we do for fun tomorrow, love?" she asked, determined to fix him at least a little before she left.


	10. Chapter 10

He held her all night in bed. Hadn't even brought a book to read, he knew he would be lost in thought. He considered all the past visits with her, all of the stories she had told him about their adventures in his future, how none of them involved the Time Lords, how he hadn't brought her to even see Gallifrey. And he thought about that very first visit. His future self had said they'd have plenty of time to talk about how she had been born human, but was now biologically similar to a Gallifreyan. They'd never actually talked about it. And he needed answers. He knew he would forget it all anyway, but this version of himself needed to know everything, needed to control everything. No, she was right, it wasn't a need, it was a choice, but his personality did compel him quite strongly.

He reached for his sonic screwdriver on the bedside table and scanned her, curious as to just how similar she was to his people. Telepathy, more resilient than a human, and a trace of connection to the time vortex that would rejuvenate her cells for a few centuries. He continued staring at the results of his scan for an hour or so, until she woke up.

Rose opened her eyes to find him studying something on his sonic. She didn't say anything, just watched him, until he finally spoke.

"How did your biology change from being human?" he asked.

"Oh. I don't remember all of it. You had to tell me a lot of what happened. As soon as we started travelling together, we saw these words everywhere we went. Thought nothing of it at first, just a coincidence you said. Bad Wolf written everywhere, graffiti, the name of a company, that sort of thing. Anyway, after about a year of travelling, we were on this space station and the whole thing had been taken over by Daleks. They were going to destroy everything and the only way to stop them was with this delta wave, but it would kill everyone on the space station and the Earth. So you tricked me into the TARDIS and activated this emergency program to send me home. I couldn't leave you to die all alone, so I opened the console and looked into the heart of the TARDIS," she told him.

"What?" he gasped.

"I don't remember what happened after that," she continued. "You said that I was glowing with the power of the vortex, I got the TARDIS to go back to the space station, turned the Daleks into dust, and you called me a goddess. But the power was killing me, so you took the energy from me and put it back into the TARDIS. It caused you to regenerate. You died for me."

"And the exposure to the vortex changed you as if you'd grown up near the Schism on Gallifrey," he reasoned. "Is that why I never took you there? I was worried what they would do to you?"

Rose considered letting him think that, but she guessed that he would figure out she was lying. She didn't want to lie to him. "No. That's not why. Please don't ask."

He stared at her for a few minutes, deciding whether or not to push for that answer as well, but she wasn't the enemy. She risked her life to save him, probably multiple times, and was doing all of this for him. He shouldn't be interrogating her.

"Thank you," he said finally. "You had never met any other Time Lords but me before this started, had you?"

"No, Doctor. Susan and Romana are the only ones I've met other than you. And that was only during this process," she admitted.

"Let's go exploring somewhere. My mind needs time to process all of this," he told her and moved to get dressed back in his beige suit.

Rose took a shower and got dressed before she went looking for breakfast. He hadn't prepared anything for her, but there were bagels and yogurt in the kitchen, so she made some tea and had that before joining him in the console room.

He had already landed them somewhere, and this time, he offered her his arm before heading out. It was a step in the right direction. The couple explored the jungle outside for several hours before deciding to head back to the ship for something to eat, but ended up stuck in a rain storm and had to find shelter somewhere. There was a small cave near a waterfall they had been admiring earlier and they managed to settle on the floor of it while waiting out the rain.

"Sorry, I should have known it was about to rain from the humidity. I thought we had at least another half hour or so," he apologized.

"Don't worry about it. This is better than being in a dungeon somewhere. Don't suppose you've got any snacks stashed in your pockets?" she asked.

He reached into his coat pockets and produced a yoyo, a ball of string, two spoons, his sonic, a pocket watch and a handkerchief. In his trouser pockets, he found several mechanical parts, resistors, a small coil of wire, three buttons, and a pack of gum.

"Ah well, was worth a try," Rose sighed.

The Doctor put most of the items back where he'd found them, but kept the spoons out and held them between his fingers with the bowls back to back. It was then that he began to play them, tapping them against his leg, against his fingers and even on the top of her head. It was funny and he was very good at it.

"Trying to impress me again?"

"That depends, is it working?" he teased.

"I haven't seen many people that can do that, mainly because most never try, but yes, I am impressed by your musical spoon abilities."

He did a few slight of hand magic tricks for her, generally trying to keep her entertained while they were stuck there, waiting for the rain to stop. Unfortunately, it seemed like they might be stuck for quite some time. Rose dozed off after a few hours for a little nap, her head lying in his lap, and his jacket draped over her. When she awoke, they snuggled together silently and watched the rain.

Rose reached up to kiss his cheek, feeling a bit like they'd gone back a step or two in the physical part of their relationship. He stiffened for a moment, then turned to kiss her properly. It was gentle and sweet for several long minutes, until suddenly it wasn't. Rose turned to straddle his legs and he guided them both down to the ground as he grasped her bum. She groaned in pleasure as he ground his erection against her, holding her hips tightly against his own.

"Hmmm. Is it my turn to impress you?" Rose asked, then slid down his body to work on his trousers.

"Rose, what are you-?"

She made quick work of releasing him from his pants and stroked him gently, knowing that he probably wasn't used to this kind of stimulation. He groaned loudly and threw his head back. Rose took that as a sign that he was enjoying what she was doing and proceeded to take him into her mouth. She hummed around him when he threaded his hands into her hair to guide her movements. One hand was holding his hips down and the other continued to stroke the base of his penis, where she couldn't reach with her mouth.

"Oh gracious! Rose, I'm going to-" he shouted.

Rose only increased her motions at his warning. It was only a moment later that he was filling her mouth and collapsed on the floor in bliss. She smiled at his response and crawled up to lay beside him.

"Hello," she said, when he looked over at her.

"That was," he began, but seemed at a loss for a moment. "Very naughty."

They both laughed, then noticed that the rain had slowed significantly. After fixing their clothes, the pair ran hand-in-hand back to the TARDIS. The ground was quite slippery, but they helped each other when they lost their footing, and were only slightly soaked when they reached the time ship.

"Now, with regards to your earlier behaviour," the Doctor began.

"Oh, am I in trouble for being such a naughty girl?" she asked, poking the tip of her tongue through her teeth.

"I wouldn't say trouble, but I do believe that you have earned some recompense," he told her.

"Hope that means more playtime," she said with a smile.

"What that means, my dear, is that I expect to be putting my studies of human female erogenous zones to very good use," he assured her, with a look that suddenly made her feel like she'd been backed into a corner with no escape.

"You'll have to catch me first," she said with a smirk and ran down the hallway.

The Doctor chuckled at that and urged the TARDIS to direct Rose into the garden room. It might be too wet outside, but in here the weather would always be perfect. He chased after her, however. Even with an idea of what room she would be in, it wouldn't do for her to get too far ahead.

Rose ran down the hallway, hoping to find somewhere to hide. She knew he would find her, wanted him to find her really, but with no other companions on board, they could have fun all over the ship without embarrassing anyone. The ship gave her only one door at the end of the corridor, but it was the garden room, so she was happy enough with that. Looking at the different directions that she could choose, Rose headed toward the field of flowers, where there were butterflies flitting through the air. She thought she might be able to hide in the taller grass and bushes at the edge of the field, but when he found her, they'd be comfortable rolling through the flowers.

She made it about halfway through the field when he caught her around the waist and they both tumbled to the ground. Rose laughed and threaded her fingers into his hair to pull him into a kiss. The Doctor's hands started roaming her curves right away, reaching under her shirt to start pushing it up and out of his way. She caught on quickly and pulled it over her head while he concentrated on removing her trousers. In minutes, all of Rose's clothes were scattered around them and the Doctor was, frustratingly, still clothed.

It seemed that he was intent on reciprocating her gift of oral sex, and she gathered that part of those books he had been studying probably had entire chapters on it.

"You don't have to, Doctor. Most blokes don't like doing that," she told him.

"I'm aware of what to expect. No need to worry, darling," he assured her, nuzzling her below her navel and taking in her scent, mixed with the surrounding flowers. He hummed at the lovely combination.

His hands stroked gently up and down her thighs and Rose decided to just enjoy herself. She stared up at the simulated sky and the butterflies floating by as her love touched her in ways that no one else ever had. While the future Doctor did do amazing things with his tongue, in the few months that they'd been romantically together, he hadn't done this. She was reasonably sure that he would try to prove himself superior to this experience once he remembered all of this. That only meant that she ought to remember this well for comparison's sake.

His fingers moved softly across her folds as he stroked her sensitive bud in circles, the way she had shown him in the bath the last time they were together. Knowing that she wasn't quite as far along yet as she was at that time, however, he kept his touches softer for now. As her arousal increased, he slid one cool finger inside of her, searching for that rough patch that his books indicated was the best area to massage. At Rose's pleased sighs, he finally brought his mouth into play, licking around her clitoris and adding a second finger inside her.

"Oh god! Doctor!" she shouted suddenly.

He hummed against her, happy to be succeeding at the studied techniques. It wasn't as if he had any chance to practise this before trying it on her. He hadn't even remembered reading it until his memories had been unlocked. The books had been quite thorough in their descriptions, however, and he found that his perfect memory was very helpful in this instance.

As her sounds of delight increased, so did her thrusting and the amount of moisture over her folds. That indicated to him that it was time to increase the intensity of his actions to propel her further towards orgasm. He added a third finger inside of her and moved his hand faster and harder. The Doctor also started to suck her clitoris into his mouth, flicking his tongue across it from time to time. Rose's fingers scraped across his scalp and grasped his hair to hold him in place now. He knew that she must be close to breaking and felt fierce masculine pride at his performance.

When Rose screamed his name, her whole body tensed beneath him and released even more fluid around his fingers. The Doctor pressed his other hand against his erection, needing a bit of stimulation as he prepared to switch their activities to something more mutual. Once her fingers released his hair and she began to twitch with overstimulation from his actions, he moved away from her and started working on removing his clothing while she recovered.

"Blimey, whatever books you've been studying should be mandatory reading for blokes everywhere," she said.

Rose looked up at the Doctor standing over her. He was finally undressed, stroking himself as he looked down at her in the field of flowers. She smiled and reached towards him, inviting her lover to join her once again. He settled his hips in the cradle of her own and kissed her roughly. She could taste herself on his lips, but decided that it didn't bother her, especially with him pressing against her like that. Rose reached between them to position him at her entrance and they both moaned at the feeling of being connected like this once again.

"Mmm, Rose. Stay with me forever," he mumbled in to her neck.

"Always, Doctor. I'm yours," she sighed.

He was moving faster now, chasing release, and Rose was already sensitive from his earlier attentions, so it wouldn't take much to push her over the edge again. The Doctor added a grinding twist to his hips against her clit with each thrust and she gasped, her body tensing as her muscles clenched around his length inside her. That was all it took to bring him to completion as well, emptying himself inside her.

The couple lay gasping in the field of flowers for several long minutes. When she felt she could move again, Rose curled into his side, draping her arm across his bare chest.


	11. Chapter 11

Rose and the seventh incarnation of the Doctor spent several days together. They lounged in the TARDIS, further explored their physical relationship, and visited a few planets. By the end of her visit, the Doctor was feeling more optimistic and ready to face the universe again. He wouldn't remember the events, but they were both sure that his lighter spirit would hold over long enough for him to find some adventure that would pull him in.

"Thank you, Rose," he said as he completed his part in forming the Bond between their minds. He had already sent a signal to the future Doctor, so he should be there any minute.

"You're welcome, Doctor. See you soon," she assured him.

The tenth Doctor dashed through the door. "Sorry, got held up for a bit. Ready, love?"

"Of course," Rose answered, blowing the other Doctor a kiss on her way out. He pretended to catch it in the air and winked at her.

Back in their own TARDIS, he commented, "Looks like your charms had their usual effect."

"Not the first time I've had to deal with a broody Doctor," she said. "Doctor, he was asking a lot of questions. About why you'd never taken me to Gallifrey and stuff. I didn't tell him about the war, felt like I shouldn't, even if he would forget."

"You're right. He might have tried to change things before you left. Then where would we be?" he agreed. "I'm surprised that version of me let you get away without telling him everything though. He was rather insistant most of the time."

"Must be my charms again," she said. Truly, she didn't know why he had stopped pressing for answers. Maybe when this Doctor remembered everything, he would be able to explain it to her.

"As long as I keep you away from the war, the next me should be far more pleasant to be around. I was a bit of a pretty boy at that point," he told her.

"Oh, I don't know. I found my time with that Doctor to be quite pleasant," she said, a sultry tone to her voice. "You ought to look up those books you were studying for a refresher course. I am definitely hoping for a repeat performance."

"I- he- what? Um, Rose? Just what particular activities am I not remembering at the moment?" he questioned, his voice going a bit high.

"Mmmm let's just say, I can't wait to see what _this_ tongue can do," she teased, tugging his tie to pull him into a kiss.

"Right! Let's get to the next one. I want these memories back, and we are getting so close now. I can feel our connection getting so much stronger already," his eyes closed as if he was basking the feeling of having her in his mind.

Rose felt a soft telepathic caress from him and smiled, imagining having something even stronger with him all the time. His eyes snapped open and met hers with a smile, then dashed over to the controls to set the TARDIS in motion.

"I'm going to aim for a point when I didn't have any companions with me again. There were several times that was the case for me then. Though I will warn you that my memory was a bit touch and go in that incarnation. Hopefully he'll remember who he is when we land," he rambled as he dashed around the console.

The TARDIS landed with its usual thump and the couple ran to the nearby time ship excitedly. The Doctor knocked on the door and it was quickly opened by a handsome gentleman with soft curls in his hair and an outfit that reminded Rose of watching Pride and Prejudice on tv.

"Hello, can I help you?" he asked, and Rose nearly melted at the sound of his voice.

"Hello, Doctor. I am your tenth incarnation, and have come to introduce you to Rose Marion Tyler," he announced with a smile.

The younger Doctor looked at her curiously for a moment before pulling her into a spinning hug. "Rose! Oh, I'm so glad to see you!"

When he finally put her back on the floor, the pinstriped Doctor grasped her chin for a quick kiss. "I'll see you soon, love."

"I love you, Doctor. And I'll be home for good soon," she assured him.

They watched as he walked back to his own TARDIS and dematerialized. The Doctor then pulled her inside, to a relatively familiar console room. A few things had changed since her time with his previous incarnation, but it was mostly the same. He tugged her over to the sofa, where he already had a pot of tea ready and prepared a cup for her before refilling his own.

"So, what have you been up to, Doctor?" she asked.

"Ah, the usual. Exploring the universe and getting into trouble. It's always more fun with you, though," he said.

"You haven't spent too long on your own, have you?" she worried.

"Well, companions come and go, but I have had several friends with me along the way. They all leave after a while, but such is the life of someone who lives for centuries and likes to travel with humans," he told her.

"Not for too much longer. You'll have me with you soon, 'n I'm never leaving you, Doctor," she assured him.

"I'm counting on it, Rose." He took her hands in his and leaned in for a kiss.

He chose a book from the nearby shelves and read aloud to her while they finished their tea. When they reached the end of a convenient chapter, the Doctor set the book aside and sent Rose to change into something appropriate for the mid-19th century, assuring her that the TARDIS would help her find the right section in the wardrobe room.

When Rose returned to the console room a half hour later, she was wearing a deep blue dress, trimmed in white and gold. It had a modest neckline, long sleeves, and very heavy skirts. She was clearly wearing a corset and bustle, which were traditionally quite uncomfortable, but the versions on the TARDIS were special recreations that were less painful to wear and much easier to put on without assistance. Rose wore a small, feathered hat, pinned into her hair that was twisted up intricately on top of her head.

"You, my Rose, are an absolute vision," he said with a deep bow in her direction.

"I think you just didn't want to change _your_ clothes," she teased.

"Believe what you wish, but I think you'll enjoy this," he told her, offering his arm as he led her out the doors of the ship.

He escorted her to a very fancy party, where she was introduced to Johann Strauss II. They waltzed for hours and mingled with the upper class. Though they were asked to leave a bit early when they were caught behaving scandalously in a dark hallway together. Not quite ready to leave that time period yet, the Doctor purchased tickets for them to attend an opera the next evening, and took Rose on a walk through the park before retiring for the night.

"What year is it exactly?" Rose asked him.

"Oh, umm April 4th, 1874," he replied.

"Best avoid the UK, then. We were banished by Queen Victoria in 1869," she said with a smirk.

"Ah yes, you told me the werewolf story a long time ago. No need to worry, we're currently in Austria. Vicky won't bother us here," he said.

"And which opera are we going to see?" she wondered.

"Well, in keeping with our visit to admire the works of Strauss, we will be seeing Die Fledermaus. Tomorrow is the premier performance and it will be one of the most popular operettas in all of Earth's history," he explained.

During the next day, until it was time for the opera, the Doctor showed her all around Vienna. Rose was very glad that she chose to wear very low heels beneath the huge dress she wore that day. When he wasn't playing tour guide, he told her the story of the opera they'd be seeing so that she would easily understand what was happening and be able to enjoy the music. Rose had a lovely day, and especially enjoyed the song, 'Mein Herr Marquis.'

"It was so funny, like a scene from a modern comedy. I always thought this stuff was all formal and boring, but when you really look at the stories, they're about all the same types of things that we laugh about in the future, sex, and misunderstandings, and people pretending to be something they're not," she said as they made their way back to the ship.

"Some things really are timeless," he agreed. "Where would you like to go tomorrow, my love?"

Rose hummed happily at the endearment as she thought. "I think I'd like to go to a beach where no one else will bother us, so you and I can swim and relax and make love all day long. No corsets, no restrictive shoes, just you and me."

It was a simple enough request, a sunny beach on an uninhabited planet, blankets and a sun umbrella. They didn't even really need swim suits since it was just the two of them. Thanks to some 24th century sunscreen, they didn't need to worry about getting burned while they were out all day. Rose and the Doctor even shared a shower that evening to get all the sand out of inconvenient places, which was bound to happen when making love on a beach.

He took her on another fancy date the next day, but it was the morning after that when Rose was in for a real surprise. When she awoke, the Doctor wasn't in bed with her, but there was an odd looking red robe waiting for her. She guessed that was required for wherever they were going today, so after a quick shower, she put it on and went in search of her fiancé. When she found him in the console room, he was wearing a similar looking robe.

"So, where are we headed with this dress code?" she asked, the sound of her voice prompted him to turn and he gasped at the sight of her.

"Gallifrey," he said.

"Oh. You showed me before. Is there something else there that you want me to see?" she wondered.

"Well, I gather from the fact that we first met in my next incarnation, but I never took you to see it in the years that we've been together, that something happens that keeps me from going home. I have a biodamper for you to wear, it will conceal from any of their sensors the fact that you aren't actually a perfectly normal Gallifreyan. I want you to see it, all of it, while there's still a chance. I can accept that you cannot tell me why I can't take you in the future, but I need my wife and bondmate to know my home planet," he insisted.

"Alright," she agreed.

He slipped a small, gold ring onto her finger to shield her from scans. Then he helped her to tie up her hair in a fashion appropriate to the ladies of Gallifrey. The Doctor parked his TARDIS just outside of the glass dome that covered the capital city. He had no plans to interact with the Council, but it was important that she see some of the important landmarks. He walked her through the streets, never touching, as was expected on a planet full of touch telepaths. They ate lunch at one of the establishments in the city, making sure to share with her all of his favourite dishes from home.

When they'd had enough of the city, the Doctor took Rose outside of the dome and back toward the fields where he had taken her before. This time, however, he guided her to the area near his childhood home.

"It's called Lungbarrow. This is where I grew up, running through these fields."

"It's beautiful, Doctor. Thank you for showing me," she said, taking his hand.

"I wish I could introduce you to my family. At least, the ones that don't despise me, but it isn't really allowed during this process. Future knowledge and all that," he explained.

"Even seeing Susan again? Since she already knows about me?"

"She isn't here. Susan is living on Earth. She married a human and has a son there named Alex," he replied.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. This won't be the final, formal part of our bonding, because that has to happen with the version of me that matches your timeline. However, this would be where we would complete it if we could. I want to give you these here, to pass them along to your Doctor. I have a feeling he might not be able to get them otherwise," he told her, handing her a flat box with two pendants displayed inside.

"This is the Gallifreyan version of wedding rings, then?" she reasoned.

"Yes. I'm sure he'll honour that tradition as well, but I want us to have these."

"I'll always treasure them."

"May I complete my part of the Bond here, before moving somewhere else for him to retrieve you?" he requested.

At her nod, the Doctor cradled her face in his hands, pressing his fingers against her temples. They kissed languidly as he connected his mind to hers in the most intimate of ways for his people. It was very nearly complete and they both felt a lingering sensation of the other's emotions even after physically separating. They smiled brightly and he took her hand in his.

"Rose Marion Tyler, run!" he said, then pulled her with him as they dashed back to the TARDIS.


	12. Chapter 12

"Will he already know me? Are you taking me to after we already met?" Rose asked.

"Yes. I'm aiming for one of the times when you were visiting your mother and I came back for you later," he explained.

"He's in for a surprise," she mumbled.

"Well, yes and no," he said. She looked at him curiously, so he continued, "First, he'll feel it when he sees you, but beyond that, it was something that I sort of dreamed of happening. I didn't dare really hope it would happen, but I wanted it so much, Rose."

The Doctor finished piloting them to their destination and took her hand.

"Hang on, should we check or something? To make sure that I'm not on the other TARDIS before I go over there?" she asked.

"Oh, yes, good idea. You wait here and I'll go talk to him first."

He walked across the small alleyway to the matching TARDIS and knocked on the door. The Doctor's previous self opened the door and looked at him curiously.

"What can I do for you?" he asked.

"Well, most of all this, I had the exact line to say all ready to go, but this time is a bit different isn't it. She was right, she usually is, of course. So, first things first, I have to ask, are you alone, Doctor?" he rambled.

"You know me? Who are you?" he demanded, not willing to show the vulnerability of being alone to just anyone.

"I'm you. The next you, Doctor. Now are you alone?" he insisted.

The leather clad Doctor crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the other man. "Prove it."

The other Doctor rolled his eyes and groaned. "Fine, if Rose were with you, she'd probably be out here by now asking what was going on. And if she happens to be, we can always hide her memories later. Hello, Doctor. I am your tenth incarnation, and have come to introduce you to... your Bond Mate." He opened his own TARDIS door and called her outside.

Rose sat on the jumpseat while she waited for her cue to go and visit with her first Doctor. She wasn't sure how to feel about it. This would sort of be wonderful, but also sort of be a goodbye that she never had with him before. She wasn't quite sure how to feel about it. She was lost in her thoughts when he opened the door and called her to the other TARDIS.

When she walked out of the ship, she was immediately faced with an incredulous looking, Doctor. He was staring at her like she wasn't real and she looked to her next Doctor.

"Does he still not remember?" she asked.

"He should," he said confusedly.

"Rose. You're my? I remember," he gasped.

"Right then," the older Doctor stated. "I'll be anxiously awaiting your call."

He gave Rose a lingering kiss as the other Doctor continued to stare at her.

"But, if this is about getting to know the different versions of you, don't I already know this one? Not that I don't want to spend more time with you, Doctor. I just don't understand," she questioned.

"I kept a lot of things private then, you know that. Those walls have all crumbled right now. He'll be more honest than you ever saw back then. Enjoy yourself, and take the opportunity to be with that version of me for a little longer," he explained.

"Ok. I'll see you soon," she agreed and turned to join the previous Doctor in his TARDIS.

The Doctor closed the door and Rose realised that he hadn't said a word since telling them that he remembered. Even then, he was a bit stuck for words. The silence started to feel awkward, so Rose decided it was now or never and ran into his arms. He immediately held her close, breathing in her hair just as much as she was taking in the familiar leather jacket. When she pulled back enough to kiss him, Rose saw that there were tears on his face.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm so glad that I took you to see it," he whispered.

"Oh Doctor. Me too. Thank you for taking me to see your home," she said, burying her face in his neck again as they held each other even tighter. "When is this for you?"

"We just saw your father. You needed some time with your mum after that," he told her.

"Ok, yeah, I suppose it would have to be now," she nodded. This was the last chance to be with this Doctor before Jack started travelling with them and the trio never really separated after that until his regeneration. "Is it a bit weird for you? You've learned to love me through this whole bonding thing, but you aren't there yet in your regular timeline, yeah?"

"What are you crazy?" he asked. "Rose, I've been arse over teakettle for you for months! How could you not know?"

He cradled her face in his large, calloused hands and kissed her softly, as if she might break if he wasn't careful. Rose sighed and let herself melt into his kiss, holding onto the lapels of his jacket so she wouldn't fall over. She had always dreamed of what it would be like to kiss this Doctor. His arms went around her back as he deepened the kiss, his tongue caressing hers with more and more intensity. When he sensed that she would need to breathe, he moved his kisses down her neck and pressed his hips against hers.

"Doctor," she sighed.

"Yes, love?"

"I really need you to take me to your bed. Now."

He scooped her legs up and carried her, bridal style, down the corridor to his room. They were frantic in their motions to pull each other's clothes off, both of them having fantasized about exactly this when they were travelling together, but never having the courage to do anything at the time.

When they were both naked on the bed, Rose wasted no time in exploring the body that she had admired for so long, always hidden beneath denim and leather. She ran her hands over the lines of his chest and abdomen, making him shiver. When she reached his hips, Rose held him down firmly before moving to fulfill some of her other fantasies about him. As soon as her lips closed around his firm length, the Doctor threw his head back and groaned.

His hands threaded into her hair while he fought the urge to thrust into her mouth. Trying to keep his body still, meant that his mouth started rambling, "Oh, Rose, yes. Feels so good. So hot. Dreamt of this for ages. Don't stop, please, don't stop."

She hummed happily at that, the vibrations pushing him over the edge quickly. Once she'd swallowed it all down, Rose crawled up next to him and curled into his side. The Doctor took a few minutes to recover from the bliss of his orgasm, but soon turned to face her and started kissing her again, stroking the side of her face reverently.

Rose closed her eyes, loving the way he was handling her so gently all of a sudden. She had always imagined sex with this version of him would be rough and possessive, and it probably would be that too, but the fact that he seemed so in awe of being with her was terribly flattering. His fingers traced the curves of her body, slowly heading toward where she really wanted him. She turned onto her back and opened her legs for his wandering hands, purring happily when he started rubbing her clit with firm circles. Two fingers slid inside her easily as his thumb continued to press on her button. He continued pleasuring her this way until she seemed near breaking point, then moved to kneel between her legs.

She moaned and writhed on the bed at the loss of his touch, gasping in surprise when he suddenly pulled her legs over his shoulders and nearly bent her in half as he thrust into her harshly.

"Yes!" he hissed, holding himself inside of her for a moment while she adjusted to the position. When she gave him a quick nod, the Doctor started pistoning in and out of her harder than she'd ever been fucked before. The force of it caused little grunts from her with every thrust and he started babbling in Gallifreyan.

Rose shattered fairly quickly with his rough handling, having fantasized about just that with him a long time ago. He groaned at the feeling of her muscles clenching around him, but wasn't done with her yet. He pulled out of her, his erection still standing strong in front of him, and flipped her over onto her hands and knees. The Doctor thrust into her from behind and took a firm hold of her hips. She was still sensitive from her first orgasm and hoped that she could find another before he finished. Rose shrieked when he suddenly swatted her on the ass, then allowed the pain of it to make their rough coupling that much hotter.

"Always running off, getting into trouble," the Doctor said, and here came the protective, possessive side that she had been expecting. "You've earned yourself a bit of a spanking, I reckon. Might even consider tying you to the bed to keep you here and out of harm's way."

Rose groaned and pushed her backside against him harder. He smacked her one more time and the reflexive clenching of muscles from it threw them both over the edge with a shout.

The pair lay tangled together on the bed for quite a while after, just basking in the joy of finally coming together when they really knew each other well. This was the first Doctor that Rose had fallen in love with and, even when he couldn't remember all their past meetings, he already loved her too.

"Penny for 'em?" Rose said.

"Hmm? Oh, just making a list of all the places I want to take you this time," he told her.

Rose smiled and said, "I have an idea. How about the planet Barcelona?"

He looked at her suddenly and asked, "Did I take you there?"

"Nope. You mentioned it, but we've never been. Just said you wanted to take me and joked about the dogs having no noses. Why are you surprised?"

"Well, the dogs are funny, but it's sort of a honeymoon spot. People go there to get married, then stay for a while. It's not really somewhere I would think to suggest usually," he told her and she started to laugh.

"Doctor, you said you wanted to take me right before you regenerated into the next you!"

"Guessing I was probably rambling a bit, then? As much as I would love to have taken you in our proper timeline, I certainly wouldn't have brought it up unless my brain was shorting out a bit. Not exactly something that you just sort of spring on someone without already being in a proper relationship," he explained.

"You were a bit, I suppose. Tried to tell me about what was going to happen and just started saying you might end up with two heads and got me all confused," she said.

"I'm so sorry, love. Sorry that I didn't tell you about it before it happened. Not really something that I like to think about needing my human companions to know. Most of my bodies have lasted a few centuries and this one's fairly new to be honest."

"It's alright, we got through it. Though you were a bit useless right after. Slept through an alien invasion almost to the end," she teased.

"Bad Wolf. I remember you telling me. More Daleks? Damn it all. Oh, and you said I took the vortex from you to return it to the TARDIS, no wonder my head was a bit messed up," he realized. "So, as much as I would indeed love to take you to Barcelona just this instant, I think your future Doctor might have a problem with that."

"Not a problem, Doctor. I only mentioned it because you had said that you wanted to take me. Is there somewhere else that you've wanted to take me?" she asked.

"Like I said earlier, I was making a list. Got lots of things in mind," he said with a grin.

The Doctor and Rose took a long shower together once they'd recovered a bit. Then he told her to find something nice to wear for dinner.

"Are you gonna change your jumper?" she teased.

"Hush you," he said with a laugh. "Go get yourself ready and I'll fly us where we're going."

Rose knew the TARDIS would help her find something appropriate for what he had in mind and opened up the wardrobe to see what was there. The ship provided her a few choices this time and she settled on the short, black cocktail dress and ballet flats. She tied her hair half up, so it would be out of her face, but left the rest in loose curls, then fixed her makeup.

She gasped upon reaching the console room. The Doctor had done more than change his jumper. He was wearing black trousers and a dark blue button shirt. There was no tie or suit jacket, but it was still far more than she had ever expected from this Doctor.

"You look beautiful, Rose. And not just considering that you're human," he told her, offering his arm.

"Thank you. Wow, I've never seen this you wear something so," she trailed off, at a loss for words.

"Formal? Only for you, Rose."

Out the doors, she saw that they'd landed in an alley, but the restaurant where they were headed was just across the way. It was nothing like the fancy balls and such that the previous Doctors had taken her to, but she knew this was still a far cry from the types of things this version had shown her while they were together. The people on this planet looked mostly human. Their eyes were a little larger, and mostly black, but that was the only obvious difference.

Their server was friendly and efficient, bringing them everything with a smile and refilling their drinks often, but leaving them to their private conversations right away. Rose couldn't remember having a nicer time with this version of the Doctor in their past.

They had just about finished their meal, when they heard some shouting coming from the kitchen in the back. One of the employees burst through the door, shouting for everyone to get out. In an instant, the Doctor pulled Rose protectively into his arms and started leading her towards the front entrance.

They'd barely made it halfway before there was an explosion and the whole room collapsed around them.


	13. Chapter 13

Rose pushed up against the heavy weight of the Doctor on top of her. He seemed to be unconscious. At least she hoped so, he couldn't die here, because he hadn't. Or regenerate, because he hadn't. She reassured herself that he was just unconscious by checking his pulse. It was weak, but he should be ok, she just had to get him back to the TARDIS medbay. Just like when they were on Earth, she couldn't let him be taken to a hospital here.

There were people around them struggling to pull themselves from the rubble, but she had to get the Doctor out of here first. There were flashing lights headed toward them. He was very heavy and her leg was hurting from when they fell, but Rose grabbed him under his arms and started dragging him towards the ship. She had to stop and rest a couple of times, but managed to get him to the doors just as emergency workers got to the restaurant.

Just inside, the TARDIS provided her with an antigravity bed for her to put him on. Once she got him up onto it, Rose sat on the floor for a minute to catch her breath and finally check her own injuries. There was a large bruise on her thigh, but seemed alright otherwise. Deciding that she would be fine, she forced herself back to her feet to get the Doctor to the medbay.

She transferred him onto one of the regular beds and the TARDIS immediately started scanning him. The screens were usually only displayed in Gallifreyan, but knowing that Rose was the only one there to read them, she translated everything into English for her. Still, she didn't really understand what she was looking for or how to treat any problems that might be there.

"What do I do?" Rose shouted in frustration. She wasn't sure if she was shouting at the ship, the unconscious Doctor, or the universe in general, but the TARDIS shone a light on one of the machines nearby. "Are there instructions somewhere?" she asked, embarrassed at her outburst.

Upon closer inspection, Rose found that the buttons were labelled with numbers and instructions on how long to press each of them. It was a regenerator for internal injuries, so she had to look at the ship's scans as the screen lit up each area that she needed to heal. It took about an hour, but Rose finished using the device on him.

"Will he wake up soon?" Rose asked the ship, but didn't get any kind of answer. She wasn't sure what she expected the ship to do, but she was so worried about him. "Is there anything else that I can do?"

A cozy chair, blanket, and cup of tea appeared next to his bed. With a sigh, Rose settled in to wait for him to wake up.

Rose startled awake, not even realizing that she had fallen asleep at all. The Doctor was still unconscious, but the medical scanners weren't showing anything else wrong with him. She was frustrated that she didn't know what to do to help him. He was the one with all the training and knowledge about this stuff. She wondered though, if she might be able to get through to him telepathically while he was unconscious and he could tell her what to do?

Ready to give anything a try at this point, Rose placed her fingers on his temples and closed her eyes. She focused on connecting with him, the way she had gotten used to. She could feel that he was there, that he was alive, but there didn't seem to be any response or recognition from him. After struggling for a bit, Rose decided that wasn't going to work and gave up. She sank back into the chair she had been napping in earlier.

"Will he be alright?" Rose asked worriedly, but didn't really get a response from the ship. She wished that she had the kind of connection that he did with the ship. He had told her once that the TARDIS could communicate with him, sort of. "Can I at least move him to his bed, where we'll both be more comfortable?"

At that suggestion, the antigravity gurney that she had used before moved itself back to the side of his bed. She rolled him onto it carefully, then brought him back to his room. When she finally got him to his bed, and pulled his torn shirt and trousers off of him, she stripped herself down to her knickers and curled up next to him.

She felt much better after a full night's sleep, but there was still no sign that he would wake up any time soon. Rose checked his hearts and decided that he must be in a healing coma. He had told her about it after his regeneration, just in case he was hurt again. She took a quick shower, then headed to the console room to see if the TARDIS could help her more.

Rose stood in front of the screen and asked, "Can you help me call him? Bring him back so he can help me?"

She waited a moment to see if she got any response, but the screen just showed the usual routine scans and the room remained ominously quiet. Rose was afraid to start pushing buttons, just in case. Frustrated with not being able to do anything, she went to find something to eat, then decided that she ought to give him a bit of a sponge bath, to get off the grime of their ordeal. She had been too tired yesterday and was kind of hoping that he would wake up soon enough to go take a shower, but there was no telling how long he would be out and she needed to take care of her fiancé.

While she was wiping him down, he started moaning and turning his head.

"Doctor! Doctor, wake up. It's me, Rose," she called to him.

"Rose? Wha happen?" he mumbled.

"There was an explosion in the restaurant. We're safe now, in the TARDIS," she assured him.

"Why am I?" he began, then gasped as his eyes popped open and he pulled the blankets over himself in a panic. "What are you doing?"

"What do you mean, what am I doing? I'm taking care of you, you daft alien!" she argued.

"I'm fine, now. You can go," he said, shocking her at his abruptness.

"Go? Why would I go? What's wrong, Doctor?"

"How did you even find my room? Why didn't you just take me to the medbay?" he asked.

Realization dawned then, he didn't remember why she was here. What would she do now?

"Doctor, you've forgotten something really important and I don't know how to unlock the memories for you again. This is our room, not just yours. I'm here with you because we're creating a bond," she explained, holding back tears.

"What?" he gasped. "Why would I? How could you? What?"

"Can you feel it? It's almost complete, you told me that this you would feel it. How do we make you remember again?" she pleaded.

He seemed to be lost in thought for a moment and she could feel his presence on the edge of her mind. "Come 'ere," he said and she sat on the edge of the bed. He placed his fingertips on her temples and they both closed their eyes. They both sank into their connection, feeling safe and loved, and so nearly complete. She could tell that he accepted it to be true, but still couldn't remember what had happened between them on this journey. He broke the connection and slumped in the bed, looking defeated.

"I'm so useless now. Can't do anything right," he cursed. "Could you tell me about all the other times we met? About the whole process, so maybe it'll shake a memory loose?"

Rose smiled and moved to snuggle next to him in bed. He put his arm around her shoulders and listened as she told him about meeting Susan with his first incarnation and having to tell him that they couldn't just leave things alone despite his arguing. Explained that the next one took her dancing and the one after that to the opera. She told him that she had misunderstood what the whole point of this was until his fourth form caught her crying and afraid that he would send her away. Rose lost track of the time as she relayed the whole experience to him, hoping that he would suddenly remember all of their time together again.

"I took you to Gallifrey? You got to see it?" he asked, tears in his eyes, but not falling just yet.

"Yes, Doctor. It was beautiful," she sighed, pulling him into her arms as he mourned the loss of his planet once again. After a moment, she asked, "You told me that Susan was living on Earth. Is she?"

"No. They called everyone back during the war. Forced her back to Gallifrey to help fight. I couldn't even protect her, not that she'd let me. Why can't I remember?! Once it's unlocked, it's supposed to stay that way until I've added my part to the bond and I lock the memories away."

"Is it because of your injuries? Or the healing coma? It sort of reset your brain or something?" she suggested.

"Healing coma? How long was I out?" he asked.

"About twelve hours, I think. I dragged you out of the restaurant and back to the ship, then the TARDIS showed me what equipment to use in the medbay to heal your internal injuries. Waited a couple hours there, but then I brought you back here so that we would both be more comfortable."

"You're right. Might have just reset everything. Not sure what we can do about it then," he sighed.

"Is it ruined then?" she asked, starting to cry.

"What? No! No, Rose, it'll be fine. Just means that I'll have to make the connection with you without remembering for now," he assured her, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

"You're sure? We'll still be able to finish it?"

"Of course. Can't let someone as amazing as you slip away, now can I?" he joked, trying to get a smile from her.

"What's the last thing that you do remember?" she wondered.

"I think I dropped you off for a visit with your mum. After the trouble we had with visiting your father, you were a bit upset," he told her.

"Sounds right for what you told me earlier. You must have just forgotten what's happened since I got here," she said.

"I think I remember someone knocking on the TARDIS. Is the one that dropped you off skinny, with a brown suit, and messy hair?" he asked, concentrating hard to remember the details before it all went fuzzy.

"Yeah, that's the next you. Should we go call him then?" she asked.

"You want to leave?"

"What? No! I just thought, since you can't remember any of it, that you'd want to just get this over with," she said.

"Oh, Rose. Even if I can't remember any of that, I still love you. Can I?" he asked, leaning in to kiss her.

Rose chuckled a bit as she leaned into the kiss. She scraped her fingernails over his scalp the way she knew he liked, and he growled, pulling her more tightly against him. Taking his response as encouragement, Rose moved to straddle him as she deepened the kiss.

The Doctor groaned as he grasped her hips and directed her movements against him.

"Guess that means you don't remember that amazing shag we had yesterday, then?" she asked, stripping off her clothes.

"We what?"

"Oh Doctor, it started getting physical when you were wearing the cricket outfit," she teased.

At that, he growled again and flipped her on her back, pulling off the rest of her clothes and taking charge the way she'd always fantasized this Doctor would.


	14. Chapter 14

Rose stayed with him for a few days, enjoying the opportunity to spend more time with her first Doctor. He avoided anywhere with people after that first disaster, and just took her to see the most beautiful things in the universe, insisting that she was even more beautiful.

On what they decided would be her last night with him, they were curled around each other in bed as he played with her hair.

"It's going to hurt so much when you're gone," he sighed.

"But you'll hide these memories too, won't you?"

"No, well yes, I'll hide the memories, but I mean I wasn't talking about that. Humans only live for a century or so. The way we live, probably even less. Don't know what I'm going to do when you're gone," he told her.

"Oh, that's right, you don't remember that part. I'm not just human anymore, Doctor," she said.

"Both of your parents were human, Rose. You can't just change species," he protested.

"Emergency Program One. You sent me home. You wanted to keep me safe, so you tricked me into the TARDIS and sent me home. But I couldn't just let you die, so I opened the console and looked into the heart of the TARDIS. I went back for you and saved the day, but then you saved me, by returning the energy back into the TARDIS. That's how you regenerated," Rose explained.

"And exposure to the time vortex changed you somehow?"

"You said I'm more like a Gallifreyan now. One long life, and telepathy, and stuff. I'm not leaving you, Doctor. Not for a very long time."

He rolled over her, then, kissing her passionately. And when they were both deep in each other's minds, in the throes of passion, he completed his part of their bond. They collapsed in the soft blankets and slept, their arms and legs tangled together.

Rose awoke to light kisses all over her face, and the smell of breakfast nearby. She grabbed the Doctor by the ears and pulled his kisses to meet her lips before sitting up. He had brought her breakfast in bed this morning and she happily shared it with him before they both headed to the shower. It was his fault that she ended up covered in syrup after all, it was only fair that he be the one to clean it up.

He called the other Doctor back to pick her up and it was only a minute before he popped his head through the doors and interrupted their snogging on the jumpseat.

"Oi! It's my turn now, Romeo," the Doctor that had just arrived announced.

Rose looked back at him, in a bit of a daze, from the leather clad arms that had been wrapped tightly around her. "Hello," she said happily.

"Hello, Rose. Ready to go?"

She sighed and reluctantly extricated herself from the other Doctor's arms. He grumbled a bit, but let her go.

"You'll be ok, yeah? You can still hide these memories with the other ones?" she asked.

"What?" her future Doctor asked.

"Yeah, nothing to worry about, Rose. Now, Doctor, I leave our Bondmate in your very capable hands," he said formally.

At that, the pinstriped Doctor's eyes closed the way all the previous ones' had when the memories were unlocking. "I, oh! Oh, Rose," he exclaimed as he remembered each and every visit from her, and pulled her into his arms.

"Right! Well, you two had best be off then," the previous Doctor said, fidgeting with the controls on the console.

"Doctor," Rose called to him. He looked up expectantly. "I'll see you soon, yeah?"

"Yeah."

At that, she was led through the doors and back into her home TARDIS.

The Doctor dashed over to the console and immediately moved the ship into the vortex, leaving Rose wondering just what was supposed to happen next. She fidgeted a bit until he finally walked back over to her.

"Did you want those things you gave me-," he cut her off with a finger over her lips, then took her hand and led her off down one of the corridors. He had taken her bag in his other hand, so she wouldn't have to carry it, but she wasn't sure where he was heading. This wasn't the way to their bedroom, in fact she didn't remember ever going down this way before.

He stopped in front of one of the doors and smiled before opening it and gesturing for her to go first. When she stepped inside, she couldn't believe her eyes. It looked like Gallifrey. There were schelnk blossoms and arkytior all around them, red grass filled the space, and there were even a few of the silver leafed trees. The artificial sky in the room was just the right shade of orange and she looked up in awe at the Doctor when he took her hand.

"How did you do all this?" she asked.

"I used the flowers you brought back to grow more of them. Then I realized that I probably had the genetic structure files for the grass and the trees in the TARDIS databanks. So I found some seeds for a similar grass and altered the genes a bit to match," he explained.

"It's beautiful, Doctor," she said before he started rambling the entire process that she wouldn't understand anyway. "A little piece of home for you."

"Thanks to you. Not sure I would have wanted something like this before. But knowing that you've seen it. That this is something we can share, and we can complete our Bond here, almost in the fields of my home," he told her.

"I love you. It's perfect."

He opened up her bag then and took out the box with the pendants his eighth incarnation had given her. She was a bit surprised when he put both the bag and the box down on the ground. But he reached into his pocket and knelt down in the grass in front of her.

"My precious Rose, today we will complete the Bond that we set out to form between our minds and weave our timelines into one. But to honour the traditions of your society, I present you with this ring and ask you to also take me as your husband in the ways of humanity. Will you marry me?" he said, holding out the most beautiful diamond ring she had ever seen. The metal looked sort of like rose gold, but there was something a bit heavier about it. The largest diamond sat in the middle, a few clusters of smaller ones one each side, the metal itself looked like a braided knotwork design holding the stones in place.

"Of course I will, Doctor," she replied and pulled him up to stand with her. He slipped the ring onto her finger and Rose wrapped her arms around his neck.

He picked her up off the ground easily and threaded one of his hands through her hair as he kissed her deeply. They both moaned as their minds connected, the Bond pulling itself towards completion. He reluctantly released her lips, wanting to do this properly, and reached down for the pendants.

"Is there some kind of ceremony or special words we have to say?" Rose asked.

"No, this is something that was always very private and personal. That's why I didn't discuss it with Romana and couldn't introduce you to my family. No one else was supposed to be involved. Only the couple. The only special words involved are our names," he explained. "Now, you don't have a Gallifreyan name. It was something that was only known to family and hidden otherwise. Wasn't even chosen by our parents, it was something that reverberated back through our timelines. As I complete the Bond, I'll tell you, but you must never repeat it to anyone but me. If you meet me out of order again, and I don't know who you are, just whisper it in my ear and I'll know immediately to trust you."

She nodded her understanding and they moved to place their fingers on each other's temples. Their eyes closed as they sank into the connection. She could feel not only his mind pressing on that special place in her mind, but her own consciousness reaching for the same place in his, as if she instinctively knew what she needed to do.

Their hands dropped to grasp the pendants, but their connection remained open. As the Doctor looped the chain around her neck, he told her his name in the melodic cadence that she recognized as Gallifreyan. She wasn't sure how, but her mind emblazoned it perfectly into her memory so that she could never forget it.

Rose reached to place the other pendant around his neck and found herself saying something in Gallifreyan without even knowing what or how. The Doctor's eyes went wide as he realized that Time had granted her a name to reverberate back on her timeline as well to the point when she had looked into the TARDIS. He felt the name burn itself into his consciousness just as it should during the completion of their Bond.

Both Rose and the Doctor felt their minds open to each other more than ever before. Where they used to revel in feeling what the other felt before, now they shared thoughts and understanding. And while they knew that they didn't need to be touching to maintain it anymore, neither had any inclination towards letting go any time soon.

He laid her down in the red grass of their new Gallifrey room and began removing her clothing. Rose gazed up at him lovingly, allowing him to take his time and dote on her the way he felt she deserved. He left her wearing only her pendant and engagement ring, then stripped himself down to his trousers, leaving his pendant on as well.

The Doctor kissed her softly, then worked his way down her body, teasing her with his tongue and occasionally stopping to suck on her pale skin to leave a mark. When he stopped to pay careful homage to her breasts, her fingers threaded through his hair, scraping his scalp and holding him against her. He squeezed them roughly as his tongue circled her sensitive nipples, then kept his hands there as his mouth moved lower.

When his tongue drew lazy circles beneath her belly button, Rose's hips lifted from the tickling sensation. He smiled at her and moved his hands to hold her still as he positioned himself between her legs. She sighed happily, knowing that she would finally find out just how talented that teasing tongue would be at pleasing her sexually. He now remembered everything he had studied in those books while they were together, and she knew he could put it to good use.

Keeping a hold on her hips, he used his thumbs to spread her open and blew cold air over her sensitive flesh. Rose gasped and squirmed, unable to control herself through the intensity of feeling not only the physical sensations, but his own lust combined with hers. He licked her with a broad stroke from her opening to her clitoris causing both of them to groan in bliss. His right hand moved to sink two fingers into her as he sucked her clit into his mouth and flicked it rapidly with the tip of his tongue. Rose was reduced to gasps and half formed syllables resembling his chosen name. She fell over the precipice quickly and barely noticed when he moved to hover over her and slid himself into her still spasming channel.

The Doctor kissed her slowly, holding himself still until she had recovered enough to continue. It was only a few minutes before she was rolling her hips against his and he began the gentle push and pull that would trigger ecstasy for both of them in short order.

They gazed into each other's eyes, feeling as if they were actually on Gallifrey, in the fields around Lungbarrow, and not just in a simulated room. This was another level of healing for him from the trauma of the war. An understanding of what had been lost, but a new beginning with their lives together.

They both shouted as their pleasure was amplified exponentially through their Bond and they collapsed together in the red grass, staring up at the sky. They looked at each other and smiled, linking their hands together between them.

"How long are you going to stay with me?" he asked.

"Forever."


End file.
